"I thought I'd be wasting my time to go to commercial record companies and make demos for them, because don't forget, I was doing what I was doing and nobody understood what I was doing."

"I know many inferior guitarists who are very proud of the fact that they are as good as they are, when in fact they are only moderately good."

"As soon as the groupie finds out that you make errors in everyday life like everybody else does and that you are human, they turn on you and hate you."

"I had a big background in listening to classical music and I started trying to compose, like I was playing the guitar but I heard an orchestra in my head."

"Early Bluegrass is my favorite kind of music, not to many people know that."

"But I say these things in an objective dispassionate manner because, you know, and I can't explain why, but being one of the greatest guitarists in the world simply is not very important to me."

"Regarding fame, fortune and Oregon I do wish I had more money."

"As for the source of the music, I believe it comes from the unconscious; that there is no such thing as talent."

"So I was really composing for full orchestra and of course I didn't know enough chords or harmonies yet but I came up with some interesting stuff."

"When I play, I very quickly put myself into a light hypnotic trance and compose while playing, drawing directly from the emotions."

"How can I be a folk? I'm from the suburbs you know."

"Well I was on the one hand, the more I played the guitar the more I began to really love the guitar and to love virtually any kind of music that anybody played well on guitar."

"So I learnt a few country western songs, I bought a chord book, and right away I started writing my own stuff, which nobody else did that, I don't know why."

"The other thing in composition is opening up the unconscious."

"Well folks, that's about it for the show tonight."

"I was using them as teachers for technique but I was never trying to be a folk."

"Oh, 1962. The music scene was so bad that several of us decided to come out to Berkeley and take over the folk music scene here."

"They are too focused on the audience rather than on their own emotions, or they are too focused on technique or perhaps on both."

"In the music I was composing I was trying to express my emotions, my so called negative emotions, which were depression, anger and so forth."

"In fact, I would go so far as to say that I am playing emotions and expressing them in a coherent public language called music."

"We're trying to find ways for our kids to give back to the community, give back to the school, ... We're also really working on giving them the work they can take with them way beyond high school."

"See my father knew a lot about music, he played the piano and he would do theory and stuff like that, but I didn't learn anything from him, but I played that for him and he liked it a lot."

"Being worshipped is a horrible experience."

"From a social perspective, I am looking for friends, not acolytes."

"I also know that I am not a great technician."

"I just want to be treated like an average guy."

"While I recognize in the back of my mind that I am an occasionally brilliant guitar composer and arranger, innovator and player."

"As for fame, it can go to your head and you can become full of yourself."