Barbara

“Power changes men, and not for the better or kings and soldiers wouldn't be so merciless. And on such power the world is built: gods and kings at the top, who are bound to no will but their own., then governors and courtiers, then soldiers and so on, until, at the bottom, common people such as herself. All commoners can do is pray and worship, gaining favors with loyalty and adulation. And, of course, subdue those even smaller and weaker than they are.”
― Costanza Casati, Babylonia

“Guitar Town was out, and it was doing okay," [Steve] Earle recalled. "But the label didn't want it to happen. Jimmy [Bowen] certainly didn't. He didn't like the record. He didn't like me. But it was out there and got really good reviews, though mostly from the rock side of things. . . . "'Guitar Town' was doing okay as the second single," Earle said. "Then around the same time, Bruce Springsteen walked into Tower Records in L.A. and bought a couple of things. He got Willy DeVille's first solo record, and he bought Guitar Town. A kid who worked there at Tower reported it, and it ended up in a column in Billboard. I sold fifty thousand records the next week and got booked all over the place. So that was it: I had a career largely because Bruce bought my record and it got into print.”
― Warren Zanes, Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska

“The poets say that men are made for glory, but gods want glory for themselves. So to make men vulnerable, they gave them the gift of love.”
― Costanza Casati, Babylonia

“Nebraska made it almost impossible for critics to miss Springsteen's willingness to take a chance in the name of his art. If Springsteen was driven simply by fame and mainstream success, there would have been no good reason to make or release a Nebraska. The album made it impossible to use the word "sellout.”
― Warren Zanes, Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska