All I ever thought was, 'I'm going to do this as long as I can, and if I can't get paid at it, I'll be a bum doing it.' And so, here I am.
Bruce Cockburn

I did a lot of writing for a lot of different kinds of bands that I was in and out of during those five years and that left me with a little body of songs that I liked better when I played alone, so I ended up going out solo and very soon made my first album.
Bruce Cockburn

I wanted to play rock and roll when I started playing. Nobody at that time ever thought about songwriting. You sang songs, that's all. You sang other people's songs. That's all there were.
Bruce Cockburn

I wear my shadows where they're harder to see, but they follow me everywhere. I guess that should tell me I'm travelling toward light.
Bruce Cockburn

I'd always loved poetry and I'd always loved writing music and composing music, but I hadn't thought of putting the two together until around that time.
Bruce Cockburn

If I had a rocket launcher, some son of a bitch would die.
Bruce Cockburn

If I try to understand what it means to be a Christian, I look at the two instructions that were given in the Bible that are paramount, and those are to love God with all your heart and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. That's it.
Bruce Cockburn

The second half of the '60s really was a kind of learning period, in terms of writing, for me.
Bruce Cockburn

The trouble with normal is it always gets worse.
Bruce Cockburn

There was a lot more music than the size of the place would indicate.
Bruce Cockburn