No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky.

All these people that I used to know, they're an illusion to me now. Some are mathematicians, some are carpenters' wives.

The tree of life is growing where the spirit never dies, and the bright light of salvation shines in dark and empty skies.

You don't count the dead, when god's on your side.

If you told the truth, that was all well and good and if you told the un-truth, well, that's still well and good. Folk songs had taught me that.

What politics I ever learned, I learned in the streets, because it was part of the environment.

There would be brilliant songs, but, as [Bob] Dylan admitted on the recent Martin Scorsese documentary about him (No Direction Home), the specific muse that inspired "It's Alright Ma" would not return.