"The way to do it is to put as much life into the song as I can. You can either get it to breathe or you can't."

"I was in high school, trying to get out of high school. The only thing slowing me up was grades."

"You can either make it come around or you can't. By the time we would be ready to record a song, we would know for sure that it was the best way we could do it."

"We all love musical architecture; there's no doubt about that."

"I don't fool with a lot of things that I can't have fun with. There's not much reward in that."

"I never subscribe to the stay-at-home policy. I'm not sick of the road or sick of eating in good restaurants around the country. I like to travel."

"If you feel like you're getting into a rut with a song, a night off usually fixes it."

"Forever Young, by Dylan, is one of my favorite songs."

"Lord, when the song wants to pick up and go a little faster towards the end, it's hard for me to resist."

"I played some Yamaha drums that I like a lot. And I like the Yamaha people a lot too. They've been really nice to me and The Band."

"There were no rules, other than that the song should sound good and be fun to play."

"Dad and mom would have preferred that I be a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist, or a great humanitarian."

"If you give it good concentration, good energy, good heart and good performance, the song will play you."

"Drums just always sounded like the most fun part of that good music for me."

"Conway Twitty was always our local hero while I was growing up. He had a series of good bands. I wanted to sit in, if Conway would let me. And he did a couple of times."

"I love horns, and the bigger the band, the better it sounds to my ear."

"By the time The Band did The Last Waltz, the chemistry had changed, and it wasn't a thrill anymore to live that studio kind of life."

"We're all dealt with the same hand here, so to speak. I feel like I've had it a lot better than most people. I've had the opportunity to travel and play music all my life."

"Don't we all want what's best for each other?"

"The crowd is just as important as the group. It takes everything to make it work."

"I like walking on the edge."

"If you pour some music on whatever's wrong, it'll sure help out."

"My dad and I played music. He teaches me a song or two every time I'm home."

"When the second record came out, they started calling it The Band. I voted to call it The Crackers. I'm no fool."

"The Jungle Bush Beaters didn't last too long as a group, but we had a pretty good time while we did."

"A friend of mine took me to Memphis advised me that I should get in the musicians' union. He gave me a set of drums and said, Stay on the job, son."

"Most of our stuff was trial and error. You live with a tape recorder, you turn it on, you play the song and you listen to it."