Steve Earle Quotes

...introduced Doc to the miracle of morphine. From that very first shot it was as if he'd discovered the one vital ingredient that God had left out when He'd sent Doc kicking and screaming into the cold, cruel world.

~ Steve Earle

The drama teacher that I had in high school, back in Texas, was the only teacher who didn't kick me out of his class. He turned me on to 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.' I had picked up Dylan with 'Bringing It All Back Home,' and he turned me on to the first couple of albums, which I hadn't heard.

~ Steve Earle

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.

~ Steve Earle

They say death and taxes are the only things that are inevitable. The truth is, you can not pay your taxes. I've done it, and there's consequences, but it can be done. Death you're not going to get out of, and you kind of got to deal with it.

~ Steve Earle

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.

~ Steve Earle

To me, religion is an agreement between a group of people about what God is. Spirituality is a one-on-one relationship.

~ Steve Earle

Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world, and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.

~ Steve Earle

Me, I'm spiritually retarded, I need to be knee deep in water with a fly rod in my hands, that's about as close to God as I get.

~ Steve Earle

You know, I'm not comfortable with people whose politics are static in a democracy.

~ Steve Earle

Poetry is the hardest thing that there is. It fascinates me, so I want to write more of it.

~ Steve Earle

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.

~ Steve Earle

Becoming interested in poetics got me interested in theater. Theater is supposed to be poetry, you know, before it's anything else. It just doesn't fly if it isn't musical.

~ Steve Earle

America's criminal justice system isn't known for rehabilitation. I'm not sure that, as a society, we are even interested in that concept anymore.

~ Steve Earle