First, you write for yourself... always, to make sense of experience and the world around you. It’s one of the ways I stay sane. Our stories, our books, our films are how we cope with the random trauma-inducing chaos of life as it plays.

— Bruce Springsteen

For me, I was somebody who was a smart young guy who didn't do very well in school. The basic system of education, I didn't fit in; my intelligence was elsewhere.

— Bruce Springsteen

Getting an audience is hard. Sustaining an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose, and of action over a long period of time.

— Bruce Springsteen

I do a lot of curiosity buying; I buy it if I like the album cover, I buy it if I like the name of the band, anything that sparks my imagination.

— Bruce Springsteen

I have spent my life judging the distance between American reality and the American dream.

— Bruce Springsteen

I know I'm good, but I'm also a poser. That's artistic balance! In the second half of the century, "authenticity" would be what you made of it, a hall of mirrors. Put on the work shirt, young man. No big deal. As you get older, it won't concern you. It's just the lay of the land. In your youth, however, you are easy prey for the many tricks of the mind. At this moment, I know my mid is not at its most centered. I can tell because I'm afraid, and that's not my style; I don't need to be, but I am.

— Bruce Springsteen

I'll love you with all the madness in my soul.

— Bruce Springsteen

I think I created my particular stage persona out of my dad's life, and perhaps I even built it to suit him to some degree.

— Bruce Springsteen

I think that is what film and art and music do they can work as a map of sorts for your feelings.

— Bruce Springsteen

It's a sad man my friend who's livin' in his own skin and can't stand the company.

— Bruce Springsteen