“When I decided to be a musician I reckoned that that was going to be t...” — Tom Petty Quote

When I decided to be a musician I reckoned that that was going to be the way of less profit, less money. I was sort of giving up the idea of making a lot of money. It was what I loved to do. I would have done it anyway. If I'd had to work at Taco Bell I'd have still been out at night trying to play music.

I've never had any idea that what I like would resonate with the audience, and I'm pleasantly surprised when it does.

Rock n' roll was one thing, and then they chopped off the 'roll' and called it 'rock,' which became a sort of umbrella term for anything with a guitar in it. Like hair bands. How could we possibly believe that? It's just gotten downright silly, to the point where now it's sort of become like professional wrestling.

'Southern Accents,' I think that's one of my best, really. That would have been 1984, and I wrote that on the piano in the studio at home. I had a studio, and I just happened to be down there in the middle of the night. It was quite late, probably early morning, and I just started to play, and a song just started to appear.

I wouldn't change a thing in my own life, but I'd like to go back in time anyway though, just to some sort of eras that I wish I'd lived in - like the '60s. I'd love to have been in London in the '60s, partying away.

I didn't want to be a senator, but I considered it anyway.

Maybe sometimes I have been wrong with some movies. Anyway, I try to do my best.

If one door is closed, break a window anyway.

For me, the virtual choir has taught me that, if anything, the Internet builds these post-national tribes, people finding each other anyway they can.