Interrogate yours hidden assumptions

I've been blessed, I think, to have tremendous joy in my life in pursuing my vocation, my calling.

I'm a bluesman moving through a blues-soaked America, a blues-soaked world, a planet where catastrophe and celebration... "Joy and Pain" - sit side by side. The blues started off in some field, in some plantation, in some mind, in some imagination, in some heart. The blues blew over to the next plantation, and then the next state. The blues went south to north, got electrified and even sanctified. The blues got mixed up with jazz and gospel and rock and roll.

When black America is on the move, America is on the move.

Frank Rich, Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd, a whole host of brilliant, courageous critics say all kinds of things, and he [Barack Obama] treats them with respect. They get invited to the White House. I say the same thing, he talks to me like I'm a Cub Scout.

The challenge artists face today is whether to be an underground, unheard genius, or to dilute their art for the marketplace.

Hey, you got something going here. I think we've got a chance for some progressive policy that actually focuses on poor and working people.