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You Make Decisions, And That's What Separates Art From Some Other Pop Music. It Doesn't Mean That You Can't Make An Embarrassing Amount Of Money, For A Borderline Marxist, Doing Something That You Love, But It Does Mean That This Huge Pool Of Money That Was Out There When I Started Making Records In The '80s Is Gone.

-Steve Earle

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You Make Decisions, And

Steve Earle

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You Make Decisions, And That's What Separates Art From Some Other Pop Music. It Doesn't Mean That You Can't Make An Embarrassing Amount Of Money, For A Borderline Marxist, Doing Something That You Love, But It Does Mean That This Huge Pool Of Money That Was Out There When I Started Making Records In The '80s Is Gone.

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Fundamentalism, As Practiced By The Taliban, Is The Enemy Of Real Thought, And Religion, Too.

When You're Really Bummed Out, The Last Thing You Want To Hear Is Up-tempo And Positive. And It Lets You Know That You're Not Alone, That Somebody Has Hurt Before. It Works The Same Way With Chick Songs As It Does With Political Songs. When You Hear Somebody Singing About These Things, You Know That You're Not Alone, That Somebody Else Is Suspicious Of What's Going On Around Us In The World. So You Don't Feel Like You're Crazy, And You Feel Like You Might Be Able To Make A Difference.

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Songwriters Are Expanding Time Rather Than Compressing Time. My Short Stories Tend To Be Old Fashioned, With A Beginning, Middle And End.

Beginning Middle And End

You Know, I'm Not Comfortable With People Whose Politics Are Static In A Democracy.

My Audience Doesn't Agree With Me On Everything, But I Love My Audience, Because They're Totally Okay With Us Having A Dialogue.

I Feel Like I Owe My Audience Something. They Feed My Kids. And I Really Like My Job, A Lot.

The Singer-songwriter Has Always Played Music That Was Stylistically Rooted In The '30s And The Great Depression And The Dust Bowl. But The Fact Of The Matter Is That None Of Us Remember The Depression Firsthand.

If There Is Such A Thing As A Workaholic, I'm It, And That's What Passes For Leisure.

What Saves Me From Being A Drug Addict Is Sort Of The Opposite. It's Me Realizing That I Don't Really Control Anything.

I Wish I Was As Sure About Things As Bill Monroe Was Sure About Things.

All We Do As Songwriters Is Rewrite The Songs That Have Impressed Us Till We Find Our Own Voice. It's Part Of Learning The Craft.

To Me, Religion Is An Agreement Between A Group Of People About What God Is. Spirituality Is A One-on-one Relationship.

I've Never Known Of Wal-mart To Be A Good Neighbor In Any Town It's Ever Moved Into.

I Mainly Read Non-fiction, And That's Probably Because I Have A Huge Amount Of Insecurity About My Lack Of Education And The Things I Don't Know.

Lack Of Education

I Love Baseball. I'll Probably End Up One Of Those Old Farts Who Go To Spring Training In Florida Every Year And Drive From Game To Game All Day.

Every Leap Forward That I Make Is By Reaching Back And Firmly Getting A Footing In The Past, And Pushing Forward As Hard As I Can.

Pushing Forward

I Ain't Ever Satisfied.

I Don't Type Fast. I Type With Three Fingers - Two On One Hand, And I Only Get One Going On The Other. I Think My Thumb's In There, But I'm Not Sure. I May Be No Better Than An Orangutan When It Comes To That.

I Just Had A Child On Purpose At Age 56, I'm Pretty F---ing Optimistic.

I Had Everything I Need To Get Me Killed.

Gregory Corso Used To Get Really Pissed When People Called Bob Dylan A 'poet.' After Writing Poetry For A Few Years, I Can Understand That.

I Really Believe That If I Make Records That Are Indispensable To My Audience, They'll Go Out And Spend Money To Buy Them, Even If They've Already Downloaded Them. If They Can Afford It. If They Can't, I'd Rather They Be Able To Download It Than Not Get It At All.

I Don't Usually Read Reviews.

You Can Go Out And Find Ways To Make Your Own Record And Get It Out There Now. If You Really Want To, You Can Be Heard. Keep Things Simple. Learn To Go Out And Play Solo. That's A Really Really Good Thing To Learn, If You're A Singer-songwriter. Don't Be Dependent On A Band Because You May Not Always Be Able To Afford One.

I'm Trying To Make Records Where People Don't Feel Cheated. Nashville Has Been Guilty Of Insulting The Country Music Audience For Years And Years.

Every Country That's Ever Been The Most Powerful Country In The World Ceases To Be The Most Powerful Country In The World At Some Point.

Every Day On Earth Is Another Chance To Get It Right.

My Objection To The Death Penalty Is Based On The Idea That This Is A Democracy, And In A Democracy The Government Is Me, And If The Government Kills Somebody Then I'm Killing Somebody.

I Don't Believe That Songwriting Has To Be Profound, But I Truly Believe That It's A Crime For You To Go Outta Your Way For It Not To Be.

I Still Write More Songs About Girls Than Anything Else.

Poetry Is The Hardest Thing That There Is. It Fascinates Me, So I Want To Write More Of It.

I Do Not Believe Tony Blair Was A Fundamentally Good Man Who Went Bad. I Believe He Was Evil In The First Place.

I Can Deal With Conservatives In A Democracy. With Real Conservatives, I Don't Agree With Them, But I Understand Why They Believe What They Believe And I Believe They're Being Honest With Me About It.

I Make An Embarrassing Amount Of Money For A Borderline Marxist, Just By Selling 100,000 Records. I Don't Sell Millions Of Records, And I Don't Need To.

I Don't Think I'm A Political Songwriter As Much As I Am Just A Political Person. I Think It's In My Fabric.

My Gift's Primarily Literary. That Being Said, I Ended Up A Musician. By The Time I Made The Bluegrass Record...i'm More Impressed With Myself When I Push The Envelope Musically Than I Am When I Push It Literality.

We're Americans. I Don't Consider Us To Be Evil, I Just Don't Think We Know Any Better. We're A Really Young Culture. We're Hillbillies, And The Rest Of The World Sees Us That Way. I Travel All Over The World, And Probably The Only Worse Rednecks Than Us Are The Australians. And They're An Even Younger Country.

I Wasn't Raised To Not Write About Issues, And I'm Just Living In Really Politically Charged Times. You Know, I'd Rather Write Songs About Girls, But It's Just Hard To Do Right Now.

It's Incredibly Irresponsible To Allow Victims' Family Members To Witness Executions.

If I Can Get Me Out Of The Way, I Can Do Anything.

My Son Was Diagnosed With Autism. He's Ok, He Makes Eye Contact, But He Doesn't Talk. He Needs Eight Hours A Day Of Very Intensive School, And You Wouldn't Even Believe Me If I Told You How Much It Costs.

I Was Born On This Mountain, This Mountains My Home, She Holds Me And Keeps Me From Worry And Woe.

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