Quotes from John Prine

I always had an affinity for older people. I had a job delivering newspapers, and one place I had to go was an old people's home. Some people would introduce you to their neighbors as if you were a nephew or grandson. They didn't get many visitors, so they acted like you were coming to see them. And that stuck with me for a long time.

I feel basically good about my career because it's remained constant. What I do has never been especially in vogue or gotten high on the charts. At the same time, I haven't had to stop performing any of my music because it aged in style.

If you listen to people talk, when people actually talk, they talk in melodies. If they get angry, their voice rises, and it's more of a staccato thing. When they ask for something, they're real sweet. It's all music.

Some voices don't blend. They just kinda rub against each other.

My sense of humor has saved me more than a couple of times in my life.

It doesn't hit you until you pull up to the hospital, and you see 'cancer' in big letters, and you're the patient. Then it all kind of comes home.

It's usually drawing on personal experience. I don't think I could dig deep enough trying to get into somebody else's life. Like 'Far From Me' - I wrote it about this waitress that I was dating when I was fifteen or so, and she broke up with me.

I think of the Bible as an unauthorized biography.

I can blame a lot of things for not writing songs, but cancer isn't one of them.

It was always difficult for me to listen to my singing voice for the first 20 years or so. I mean, I really enjoyed singing, and I enjoyed doing live shows, but being in a recording studio and having to hear my voice played back to me would really drive me up the wall.

I don't like to be caught without a pick.

I like doing chores.

Bewildered, bewildered, you have no complaint. You are what you are, and you ain't what you ain't.

The scientific nature of the ordinary man is to go out and do the best you can.

Jesus was a good guy, he didn't need this shit.

I don't concern myself with where I fit in. I just keep my head down and keep doing whatever it is I'm going.

Yeah, early '71 is when I got my record contract. I had a record come out by August of '71. Things happened really fast.

The best way to write a song is to think of something else and then the song kind of creeps in.

The more producers I talked to, the more I got looked at like I was crazy for wanting to make a live-sounding album.

I'm kind of like the Lone Ranger or Batman. I can just go to my mansion and jump out in my uniform and sing on weekends.

I take my own syrup, ketchup, and mustard, just in case of emergencies, in my suitcase. Whatever I can steal from the hotels. It's usually Heinz ketchup, and they give you a weird mustard. You don't get French's or anything; you get some sort of Dijon or some mustard. That's just for hot dogs. I don't use mustard for anything else.

If I can make myself laugh about something that I should be crying about, that's pretty good.

The only time I ever think about getting old is when I look in the mirror. I feel pretty good about it, actually.

I could never teach a class on songwriting. I'd tell them to goof off and find a good hideout.