I played guitar when I was young and never really considered it as a way to make a living. – Lyle Lovett
You don’t have to have anything in common with people you’ve known since you were five. With old friends, you’ve got your whole life in common. – Lyle Lovett
Somehow you can tell the difference when a song is written just to get on the radio and when what someone does is their whole life. That comes through in Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson. There is no separating their life from their music. – Lyle Lovett
As a songwriter, you try your best to write a good song, and you like nothing better than hearing a good song. It’s easy to admire a great song, and you want to share out of enthusiasm. – Lyle Lovett
When I first was trying to play the clubs around Houston to start playing my own songs, songwriters like Eric Taylor and Vince Bell and Townes Van Zandt and Don Sanders were just really encouraging to me and would let me sit in with them during their sets and introduce me to the person that owned and booked the club. – Lyle Lovett
The most important thing you can do as a performer is to be yourself, or be an onstage version of yourself. If you’re not being true to yourself, and somebody likes that other version of you, you’re kind of stuck. – Lyle Lovett
I’ve gotten to work with some wonderful directors and people who have been great teachers to me. – Lyle Lovett
One of my favorite things is when people will ask for a song that I hadn’t planned to play. It is really fun to see if you can remember something, and you don’t always. I mean, sometimes it’s just crash and burn. – Lyle Lovett
I’ve always thought that writing isn’t really that hard. It’s having a good idea that’s hard. – Lyle Lovett
If you forget the words to your own song, you can always claim artistic license. Forget the words to the national anthem, and you’re screwed. – Lyle Lovett
Tipping your hat to a lady is good form. If you’re at a dinner table, you’d most certainly take your hat off – cowboy hat, baseball hat, or otherwise. – Lyle Lovett
It’s difficult to get started-when it comes to dealing with an unknown quantity, people are reluctant to trust their own opinion. It helps if two or three people give you a boost. – Lyle Lovett
It’s really a lot easier to write about things that are problematic. Who wants to hear how happy you are? – Lyle Lovett
You can’t second-guess your audience. You can only do what you think is right. If you do that, your audience will appreciate you. – Lyle Lovett
In school, I didn’t speak up often in class. I was never the person to yell out an answer. If I knew it, I might whisper it to my buddy and let him answer. I kept quiet. – Lyle Lovett
You’re saying something with your appearance whether you mean to or not, so you may as well mean to. – Lyle Lovett
Dad often told me, ‘My job is to help my boss do his job and make him look good.’ That was my dad’s objective. Everything about the way he conducted himself was to communicate support for his superiors and respect for his coworkers. The way he dressed was his starting point in that communication. – Lyle Lovett
I don’t feel like I’m on a mission. I’m trying to play music that I like to play and like to listen to. – Lyle Lovett
The idea that we humans are good-natured, politically correct, nonjudgmental beings is pure fantasy. We are, at the very least, judgmental. – Lyle Lovett
Never guess a woman’s age. Never guess a woman’s weight. Never even talk about weight in front of a woman. And never, ever ask a woman when she’s due. – Lyle Lovett
Horses teach you patience and how to do things the right way so you can get the right result. – Lyle Lovett
Wear what you want to wear. Do what you want to do. Be who you are. Pick out your own clothes. Be a man. And if that’s too much to ask, as it almost always is for me, think of someone you consider to be a man and pretend to be like him. I pretend to be like my dad. – Lyle Lovett
