"This is just strictly me wanting to make a record that is the real deal. It is all the stuff that I have learned and know that I remember. It's what I perceive as country music is about"

"Music is my religion"

"Music is the shorthand of emotion"

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away"

"Music is the universal language of mankind"

"My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary"

"All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff"

"I've always been into melodies. That's what I love about music – a good melody that gives you goosebumps"

"Music doesn't lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music"

"We worked very hard to make the lyrics suit the music. I can't, like Elton John, for example, compose by lyrics. Elton has a great talent for that. Whatever you give him, including your questions, he composes in half an hour and makes a great song out of it"

"I call architecture frozen music"