Lucinda Williams

“I'm dealing with things as they come along, and I'm talking about it.”

“I guess you could write a good song if your heart hadn't been broken, but I don't know of anyone whose heart hasn't been broken.”

“I certainly had my God-can-you-just-take-me-now-I've-just-had-it-I'm-checking-out-let-me-off-the-train-I'm-done kind of thing. But, you know, I would never actually do it. I just can't imagine what it would take to do that.”

“I'm trying to get out of my own way.”

“I write the songs, go in and record them, then I listen to everything and decide how it all fits together.”

“I'm not just a doormat. I'm not just being stepped on all over the place. If you look at the bulk of my material, it's about trying to find some strength through that.”

“So few people are truly themselves when they're in the spotlight.”

“You can't really praise somebody's work and then criticize the process.”

“In so many interviews, they bring up the sexual aspect of the record. I've had some journalists say it sounds like I'm lying down in bed singing with a microphone. It gets so old!”

“If you come into success too soon, you'll burn out and be finished before you know it. If you let the maturation process happen naturally, you'll be happier with yourself in the end.”

“I don't mean to complain. I wouldn't trade my life for anything.”

“Back in the 1960s, I saw Peter, Paul and Mary. I was at that age, about 14, and I was mesmerized.”

“Some of their best songs don't have bridges and choruses. So that made me think I should trust my instincts. My songs were okay, I figured. I didn't need to change anything.”

“Of course, I'm older now. I'm in a different place in my life than when I wrote the songs for 'Car Wheels' or 'Essence' or whatever. Different things were going on.”

“I have a folder of scraps and pieces of paper with stuff, ideas for songs from the last 25 years; just little things, maybe early songs that I finished, but didn't think they were good enough.”

“The more I separate myself from my upbringing, the more I appreciate what it's done for me.”

“I usually have an idea of how I want a song to sound, but I don't always know how to get there.”

“I write first for myself as a therapeutic process, to get stuff out and to deal with it.”

“I'm always coming up with ideas that have been inspired by memories, everyday life and this and that and the other.”

“I have such a great band. We had played all this material on the road. I just wanted to let it fly.”