"My grandmother was the greatest cook in the world. She could just go in there, the whole kitchen would look like a tornado hit it and then she'd come out with the best food. Then she'd sit at the table and she wouldn't eat!"

"A lot of the songs start with an image. I was sitting there playing the guitar and I pictured this old, dirty green car, with the window rolled down, in the hot, hot, hot Texas heat, and this beautiful woman I knew when I was a kid sitting behind the wheel, looking out at me."

"No matter how famous and established they were or however blessed they were with great songs or long careers, if they lived alone, they lived alone. That's not the way I wanted to live prior to the tour or after."

"I can make dressing - or stuffing. Y'all call it stuffing up here, we call it dressing down there. It's really good dressing. That family recipe was passed on, and I love to make that."

"Marriage changes everything."

"Most quarrels amplify a misunderstanding."

"It has always been my private conviction that any man who puts his intelligence up against a fish and loses had it coming."

"It is a unyielding truth that true authority is measured not by subjugation, but by the empowerment of others — an essential principle for the reflective life."