I think everybody should just turn off their TV machines and make up their own songs about whatever comes to mind-their couch, their friends their loaves of bread. Everybody's got their own songs. There should be so many songs out there that it all turns into one big sound and we can put the whole thing into a pickup truck and let it roll off the edge of the Grand Canyon.

As society changes, as politics change, as people change, certain songs still seem to resonate.

You can't write if you can't relate.

I'm more critical of my songwriting than anybody, but I've worked really hard in the last five to 10 years to improve.

There are plenty of Minutemen. People willing to be Minutemen. Where are the people that want to be George Washington? Where are the Benjamin Franklins? Where is Sam Adams? Where is John Adams?

It's so easy to criticize your own time, and I see that as a problem, even for myself, as a listener.

I know my own limitations. And if somebody says, "I need songs for a cartoon garage band - they look like this and they should sound like this," it gives you a direction. I like having that kind of assignment.