Most of the things I write are things that are personal to me. I realized that that's the only way to really be honest. If you go writing about someo… - Billy Joe Shaver

The main thing is to make up your mind. If you're going to do it, do it, and if you're just going to halfway do it don't even try. This is a very demanding thing. I stay simple, I didn't get a whole lot of education, so most of it's just coming from what I gathered up. If you stay honest we've all got in common that we're all different. If you stay real deadly honest and write about some very interesting things then you'll be a good one. A lot of people just don't like to get honest but it's the cheapest psychiatrist there is. I think that's the way to look at it.

I'm a serious guy, and hungry, too.

I think maybe I was born to be a songwriter. It's quite a comfort. I wrote most of my songs to stay alive, the rest to get back in the house.