Lyle Lovett

“You can't second-guess your audience. You can only do what you think is right. If you do that, your audience will appreciate you.”

“I've gotten to work with some wonderful directors and people who have been great teachers to me.”

“I sort of cringe when I hear myself say the word 'work.' Getting to do something you love to do never really feels like work.”

“If you forget the words to your own song, you can always claim artistic license. Forget the words to the national anthem, and you're screwed.”

“I am limited by what I can think of to do-my choices are not so great.”

“Singing your own songs is all about individual expression.”

“As a songwriter, you try your best to write a good song, and you like nothing better than hearing a good song. It's easy to admire a great song, and you want to share out of enthusiasm.”

“I've always thought that writing isn't really that hard. It's having a good idea that's hard.”

“The idea that we humans are good-natured, politically correct, nonjudgmental beings is pure fantasy. We are, at the very least, judgmental.”

“Records are very powerful promotional tools to go out and be able to play on the road, but you do have to think about it as a way of sustaining itself at some point.”

“You don't have to have anything in common with people you've known since you were five. With old friends, you've got your whole life in common.”

“Wear what you want to wear. Do what you want to do. Be who you are. Pick out your own clothes. Be a man. And if that's too much to ask, as it almost always is for me, think of someone you consider to be a man and pretend to be like him. I pretend to be like my dad.”

“Never guess a woman's age. Never guess a woman's weight. Never even talk about weight in front of a woman. And never, ever ask a woman when she's due.”

“I played guitar when I was young and never really considered it as a way to make a living.”

“Somehow you can tell the difference when a song is written just to get on the radio and when what someone does is their whole life. That comes through in Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson. There is no separating their life from their music.”

“My first performance was in second grade with my friend Rodney Fisher, and we worked up versions of 'Long Tall Texan' and 'I Want to Hold Your Hand.' It gave me a little early confidence that I could actually do this music thing.”

“I don't feel like I'm on a mission. I'm trying to play music that I like to play and like to listen to.”

“Fortunately, I've never had a job.”

“Songwriters aren't always performers, and even performing songwriters aren't always the kind of show-biz performers you think they'd be.”

“I've just always written songs in a style that appeal to me personally.”