"The life I lead is mighty slim pickens, there ain't much call for stompin' on chickens"

“John Doe - What Would John Doe Do? Blog”

“Crowded fifty to a room, There's too many rats in this cage of the world, And the women know their place, They sit home and write letters, And when they visit once a year, Well they both just sit there and stare, Gotta keep bars in between us, See how we are”

“Video/audio: John Doe at The Current/Free Yr Radio SXSW 2008 live broadcast”

“If I was a better poet like William Carlos Williams I’d be able to write about anything, but I’m just a minor poet. So I just write about things like moments of crisis that tend to be on the sadder, darker side. You can spend ten minutes in a really dark place and write a song about it that lasts forever.”

“There are no angels there are devils in many ways”

“Climbing uphill, one dollar bill, this town is far.”