“Make no mistake about it, making a good record is pure, unadulterated pain. If you fall and break your leg--that's pain. But I'm telling you, the phase between pain and death? That's making a good record. It's extreme.”

— Roots Radical, Guitar Player (December 1, 1999).

“Every time feels like my first time. And I just find that the process of it feeds into one's own self-obsession.”

— About interviews; Ben Harper Interview, MusicFix (February 14, 2006).

“My band is the best band in the world, period. So, I insist on every song being better then it is on the record. So by the end of the tour, we have to be playing the song better then how it’s recorded.”

— The Streets Interview with Ben Harper, cmj.com (June 20, 2006).