I'm a great believer in freedom of speech.

I consider myself a songwriter... I guess the business end is my songs and the fun part is playing the guitar.

Yes, I've been down the pike and back. And through the years, I've heard different songs with scatting in it, and it was - always cracked me up as kind of a funny style of music, you know? When I did it, it kind of cracked me up as a comedy kind of routine.

Probably the only thing that I really don't like about being an old guy is so many of the people who understand what we know are gone.

That's one of the problems in being a songwriter and living a long time. What you eventually end up doing is you start imitating yourself.

If you write songs long enough, you run out of material that's original to yourself.

Oh, I'm not a very good singer, and that's 'cause I was always embarrassed about my singing.

I was mainly a songwriter; I really wasn't much of a performer.

There are entertainers and there are musicians, and I never was an entertainer.

All record companies want big-selling records, and my music is a little too raw for commercial success.

People are familiar with my songs, especially through Eric Clapton. But I have a hard time drawing a crowd, because I have been a songwriter.

I didn't really get any success till I was 30 years old. I played music when I was young fella, but I didn't really get any success till I was about 30 years old.

Yeah, Lynyrd Skynyrd, I knew all them guys.

From the first album I'm playing bass on a lot of the tunes, and piano on a lot of 'em, and drums, and guitars. I did that on almost every album.

We used to say when we were 20 years old, that when you reach 30, you gotta hang up your guitar and get a real job.

Sometimes the simplest forms of music are the hardest to play. Especially for musicians that are accomplished.

Nobody really produces my albums.

I guess if I'd have more of a producer attitude, maybe I'd sell more records. But I'm basically a songwriter.

So, my records really didn't sell, but musicians started picking up on my sound and my songs and cutting my songs and that turned into a gold mine.

I've always enjoyed playing. If all it meant were to just stand there and play my axe and sing, I could have gone on forever.

I've always tried to come up with something that would catch your ear.

I'd say writing songs is, for me, as much playing the tape recorder as it is playing guitar or writing words.

I figure that most people will remember me for the songs I wrote.

Oil was the big business in Tulsa and there was quite a bit of nightlife for a small town. You could never make any money, but you could always find a place to play.

I played a lot of nightclubs in and around Tulsa till I was about 22, 24 years old, then I started travellin' around.

I was a studio engineer out in L.A. for about six or seven years, and I played sideman for different people, and played in bar bands. I was an old man of 32 when I made my first album.

My performing and my singing leave much to be desired, but having other people record my songs is the most flattering thing that can happen.

I wanted to be able to play music, and then when I went out in my private life, my personal life, I didn't want to be famous.

When I sit down and play the guitar, I'm 20 years old again.

You know, I write songs, I repair guitars.

Sometimes I make up songs, and they're just strictly fiction. Other times, I draw on things that have happened in my life or friends, women, all sorts of things.

Songwriting is just like any other kind of writing - it's either fiction or nonfiction. You can even get into philosophy and politics, which I've done on occasion.

You never know how people are going to find songs for their records. Sometimes people will hear songs on someone else's record and really like 'em.

I've stolen licks from just about every person that ever picked up a guitar. We all borrow from one another; it's called legitimate stealing.

I'm always doing something that ain't happening, and I'm always happening when there ain't nothing going on.

I always wrote for musicians, especially guitarists. I write songs that people who aren't great virtuosos can play.

All artists are redundant about their own style; they can't escape themselves.

Everybody lives in a city, cause there's not too many people in the small towns who can find work.

No. 1, I'm a songwriter, and I don't really get out and tour.

I'd do the blues all the time if I could, that's what I'm into. But people just don't like to hear it.

I just play my guitar and push my songs and I'd like to keep it quiet.

I ain't got much to say.

Ask any guitar player - it's hard to feed yourself when you're picking for a living.

A lot of people are coming down on people taking old rock 'n' roll songs and making commercials out of them, but from a songwriter's standpoint, I don't mind because it helps pay my rent.

I was an engineer for a long time. I was a sideman guitar player.

I'm an electronic manipulator. Most people think J.J. Cale, he's organic. There ain't nothing organic about me.

I'm a recording studio guy, an engineer, a songwriter and a guitar player, in that order.

I would never ever sing at all if I could get away with it. I had pitch problems, no range. So what I did was manipulate the sound... that way you couldn't tell that I wasn't very good.

All my music sounds the same to me.

I was kind of a sideman. Then I became kind of a singer-songwriter.