Bruce Springsteen

It fired my imagination. It, of course, was a colorful locale. The city was filled with characters and plenty of people at loose ends, and so it just became a very natural thing to write about. I didn't give it too much thought at the time, but I did think...

that it gave me a very individual identity, and that if I was going to go out into the musical world on a national level, I was very interested in being connected to my home, my home state. There wasn't anyone else writing in this way about these things at that time. So it was something I did intentionally, in a sense, as creating a certain very, very specific identity and original identity.

that it gave me a very individual identity, and that if I was going to go out into the musical world on a national level, I was very interested in being connected to my home, my home state. There wasn't anyone else writing in this way about these things at that time. So it was something I did intentionally, in a sense, as creating a certain very, very specific identity and original identity.

that it gave me a very individual identity, and that if I was going to go out into the musical world on a national level, I was very interested in being connected to my home, my home state. There wasn't anyone else writing in this way about these things at that time. So it was something I did intentionally, in a sense, as creating a certain very, very specific identity and original identity.

You just go where your psychology leads you, I think. I've always loved the fact that Bob's been able to sustain his mystery over 50 or 60 years. In this day and age, that's quite a feat in itself. And the things that I loved about... Bob's music, and I describe him in the book as the father of my country, which he really is, were things that just didn't fit when I went to do my job.

You just go where your psychology leads you, I think. I've always loved the fact that Bob's been able to sustain his mystery over 50 or 60 years. In this day and age, that's quite a feat in itself. And the things that I loved about... Bob's music, and I describe him in the book as the father of my country, which he really is, were things that just didn't fit when I went to do my job.

You just go where your psychology leads you, I think. I've always loved the fact that Bob's been able to sustain his mystery over 50 or 60 years. In this day and age, that's quite a feat in itself. And the things that I loved about... Bob's music, and I describe him in the book as the father of my country, which he really is, were things that just didn't fit when I went to do my job.

You know, I'd come out of a somewhat different circumstance and the clothes just didn't fit.

You know, I'd come out of a somewhat different circumstance and the clothes just didn't fit.

You know, I'd come out of a somewhat different circumstance and the clothes just didn't fit.

When I thought about signing a record deal or writing something that might put me in the position, because I'd already had plenty of things that had fallen through with my rock bands, I looked at myself and I just said, well, you know... I can sing, but I'm not the greatest singer in the world. I can play guitar very well, but I'm not the greatest guitar player in the world.

When I thought about signing a record deal or writing something that might put me in the position, because I'd already had plenty of things that had fallen through with my rock bands, I looked at myself and I just said, well, you know... I can sing, but I'm not the greatest singer in the world. I can play guitar very well, but I'm not the greatest guitar player in the world.

When I thought about signing a record deal or writing something that might put me in the position, because I'd already had plenty of things that had fallen through with my rock bands, I looked at myself and I just said, well, you know... I can sing, but I'm not the greatest singer in the world. I can play guitar very well, but I'm not the greatest guitar player in the world.

What excites me about a lot of the artists I love? And I realize, well, they created their own personal world that I could enter into through their music and through their songwriting. There's people that can do it instrumentally, like Jimi Hendrix or Edge of U2 or Pete Townshend. I didn't have as unique a purely musical signature. I was a creature of a lot of different influences.

What excites me about a lot of the artists I love? And I realize, well, they created their own personal world that I could enter into through their music and through their songwriting. There's people that can do it instrumentally, like Jimi Hendrix or Edge of U2 or Pete Townshend. I didn't have as unique a purely musical signature. I was a creature of a lot of different influences.

What excites me about a lot of the artists I love? And I realize, well, they created their own personal world that I could enter into through their music and through their songwriting. There's people that can do it instrumentally, like Jimi Hendrix or Edge of U2 or Pete Townshend. I didn't have as unique a purely musical signature. I was a creature of a lot of different influences.

And so I said, well, if I'm going to project an individuality, it's going to have to be in my writing. And at the time, for one of the few times in my life I didn't have a band, I just had myself and the guitar. So I was going to have to do something with just my voice, just the guitar, and just my songs that was going to move someone enough to give me a shot.

And so I said, well, if I'm going to project an individuality, it's going to have to be in my writing. And at the time, for one of the few times in my life I didn't have a band, I just had myself and the guitar. So I was going to have to do something with just my voice, just the guitar, and just my songs that was going to move someone enough to give me a shot.

And so I said, well, if I'm going to project an individuality, it's going to have to be in my writing. And at the time, for one of the few times in my life I didn't have a band, I just had myself and the guitar. So I was going to have to do something with just my voice, just the guitar, and just my songs that was going to move someone enough to give me a shot.

So I wrote songs that were very lyrically alive and lyrically dense, and they were unique. But it really came out of the motivation to where I understood I was going to have to make my mark that way.