Born to Run

by Bruce Springsteen

At one point I leaned over and, with Evan between us, I kissed Patti. From here on in I wouldn’t be alone.

That was the premise of The Ghost of Tom Joad. What is the work for us to do in our short time here?

the egocentric strength; the high of his manic state—everything but the long, drawn-out depressions. I understood. I’d been there, though not to his extremes. Manic depression, the bipolar personality. It’s the prize in the Cracker Jack box in our family.

We honor our parents by carrying their best forward and laying the rest down.

Those whose love we wanted but could not get, we emulate. It is dangerous but it makes us feel closer, gives us an illusion of the intimacy we never had.

It stakes our claim upon that which was rightfully ours but denied. In my twenties, as my song and my story began to take shape, I searched for the voice I would blend with mine to do the telling. It is a moment when through creativity and will you can rework, repossess and rebirth the conflicting voices of your childhood, to turn them into something alive, powerful and seeking light. I’m a repairman. That’s part of my job. So I, who’d never done a week’s worth of manual labor in my life (hail, hail rock ’n’ roll!), put on a factory worker’s clothes, my father’s clothes, and went to work.

Love has a great deal to do with humility.

Van Morrison has always been one of my great, great heroes and an enormous source of inspiration for everything I’ve done. Van put the white soul into our early E Street records.

your heart is in it, it ain’t old.)

Renewed sight is the hero’s last loving gift to those left behind.