My models for graceful aging are guys like John Lee Hooker and Mississippi John Hurt, who never stopped working till they dropped, as I fully expect to be doing, and just getting better as musicians and as human beings.

Abu Ghraib, as bad as it was, can't be compared to what Saddam was doing to people.

There's so many ways in which Canada and America are inextricably connected politically, economically, socially. There's no stepping away. But at the same time, we don't have a say. Canada is a different country. Sometimes I think of it as Finland in the Soviet era. We're totally free, but we're totally free to agree, basically. If we disagree too heartily or over too sensitive an issue, then we pay a price for that.

I always write the lyrics first. There are one or two exceptions over the years, but that's pretty much the way it's been. The process of applying music to words is a bit like scoring a film. You've got imagery.

In between effect and cause and just beyond the range of normal sight, this glittering joker was dancing in the dragon's jaws.

Some people never see the light Till it shines thru bullet holes.

My overall responsibility is to be truthful. If people pay money to come and see me, looking for something other than that, then they've made a mistake.