Write without pay until somebody offers to pay you. If nobody offers within three years, sawing wood is what you were intended for.

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

I seem to write a lot of sad songs because I'm a very tragic person. But there's always an element of humour at the end.

Forgive but don't forget, girl keep your head up. And when he tells you you ain't nothing, don't believe him. And if he can't learn to love you, you should leave him.

Anybody can be specific and obvious. That's always been the easy way. It's not that it's so difficult to be unspecific and less obvious; it's just that there's nothing, absolutely nothing, to be specific and obvious about.