Steve Earle Quotes

As I've grown older, I've grown more convinced there's nothing that shouldn't be talked about. If we think we're protecting each other, we're not.

My fans want me to talk to them. And even if they want to be critical, I want to hear what they've got to say.

Never treat your audience as customers, always as partners.

We need to stop telling each other to shut up. We need to get comfortable with the reality that no one is going to shut up.

The church must constantly promote dialogue.

We don't necessarily always agree, but hopefully we make each other think, and that's what matters.

Individuals will speak their minds, which I think is healthy.

I like cinema audiences. I respect them, and I talk to them just like I would anybody I know.

I want people to talk to one another no matter what their difference of opinion might be.

I love disagreements. I love the democratic process. If I'm in a room where everybody agrees, I start to nod off.

As I say, I'm a discourse advocate. What form it comes is less important to me than the fact that there is discourse.

Just listening and going back and forth and exchanging ideas with people. It's a beautiful thing. This is what's really important.

Certainly I'm always willing to talk to anyone who's interested in talking to me!

We cannot have that relationship if we only dictate or threaten and condemn those who disagree.

So I think it's important to communicate with the people in terms of what the real facts are on these proposals and try to have a discussion and a dialogue that gives people information. I think they're hungry for that rather than just political rhetoric.

That's the nice thing about collaborating with someone: Your work becomes a conversation.

We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another - until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.

I learned that a long walk and calm conversation are an incredible combination if you want to build a bridge.

There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.

I think there's a kind of love relationship between an actor and an audience, and this is something I really feel with the audiences in France.

Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who'll argue with you.

We can argue and we can disagree, but we don’t need to poke our fingers in each other’s eyes in order to get our points across.

It is important in a democracy to respect contrary opinion without impugning the motives or maligning the character of ones opponents. To view it any other way is to encourage the same type of sickness in public life that leads to assassinations.

You need people who have their own views, whose views you respect, whom you can have a productive disagreement with, and work out ideas which you might not have come up with, or who improve on ideas you had.

When I talk to kids, I'm really listening. When I do that, we have a little bit of a bigger connection than me being Kendrick Lamar and you being a student. It's almost like we're friends. Because a friend listens.