Townes Van Zandt Quotations

I don't envision a very long life for myself. I think my life will run out before my work does. I've designed it that way.

Im the mold that grunge was grown in.

What I do is between me and the Lord, to examine and possibly alter the state of grace in which I live, and thereby the state of grace of anybody who listens.

I don't think you can ever do your best. Doing your best is a process of trying to do your best.

I'd like to write some songs that are so good that nobody understands them. Not even myself.

Human's can't live in the present as animals do; they just live in the present. But human's are always thinking about the future or the past.

I don't know why I write really depressing songs. I'm a kind of melancholy guy, I suppose. But I figure I'm about normal.

I don’t envision a long life for myself. Like, I think my life will run out before my work does, y’know? I’ve designed it that way.

All of a sudden there's a song - there in your hotel room playing your guitar - and you write it, and two or three years later it will come true. It keeps you on your toes.

Now the dark air is like fire on my skin, And even the moonlight is blinding

Now you wear your skin like iron

There's only two kinds of music: the blues and zippety doo-dah.

Sorrow and solitude, these are the precious things/ And the only words that are worth remembering.

Well I was born a rambler friends, and I intend to die that way. It could be twenty years from now it could be most any day. But if there ain't no whiskey and wimen lord behind those heavenly doors, I'm gonna take my chances down below and of that you can be sure.

I've met Bob Dylan's bodyguards, and if Steve Earle thinks he can stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table, he's sadly mistaken,

There are only two kinds of songs; there's the blues, and there's zip-a-dee-doo-dah,

Aloneness is a state of being, whereas loneliness is a state of feeling. It's like the difference between being broke and being poor.

Humans can't live in the present, like animals do. Humans are always thinking about the future or the past. So it's a veil of tears, man. I don't know anything that's going to benefit me now, except love. I just need an overwhelming amount of love. And a nap. Mostly a nap.