209 Quotes by Steve Earle

Every country that’s ever been the most powerful country in the world ceases to be the most powerful country in the world at some point.

I don’t separate writing songs from poetry and short fiction. In the area where I work in my house, there’s a word processor and a guitar.

America’s criminal justice system isn’t known for rehabilitation. I’m not sure that, as a society, we are even interested in that concept anymore.

The singer-songwriter has always played music that was stylistically rooted in the ’30s and the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. But the fact of the matter is that none of us remember the Depression firsthand.

What songwriting does better than almost anything is empathy – it’s incredibly empathetic. The reason people sat around in bars when they were bummed out and listened to country songs is because it made them feel better in the long run.

My objection to the death penalty is based on the idea that this is a democracy, and in a democracy the government is me, and if the government kills somebody then I’m killing somebody.

I’m trying to make records where people don’t feel cheated. Nashville has been guilty of insulting the Country Music audience for years and years.

My son was diagnosed with autism. He’s OK, he makes eye contact, but he doesn’t talk. He needs eight hours a day of very intensive school, and you wouldn’t even believe me if I told you how much it costs.

Politics has always been in my music. Anybody who doesn’t understand how political “Copperhead Road” is isn’t listening very well.