I developed a problem with authority. Any time that authority was what I interpreted as being unjust, I stood up to it, and that became my personality.

More Quotes by Tom Petty

I don't think it's a good attitude in your life to feel that you have to be rich to have self-esteem.

'Southern Accents,' I think that's one of my best, really. That would have been 1984, and I wrote that on the piano in the studio at home. I had a studio, and I just happened to be down there in the middle of the night. It was quite late, probably early morning, and I just started to play, and a song just started to appear.

Music is probably the only real magic I have encountered in my life. There's not some trick involved with it. It's pure and it's real. It moves, it heals, it communicates and does all these incredible things.

Go after what you really love and find a way to make that work for you, and then you'll be a happy person.

Do something you really like, and hopefully it pays the rent. As far as I'm concerned, that's success.

I'm not exactly a guy who makes new friends easily.