I remember doing "As Cool As I Am" and Steve Miller, the producer, saying "I really hear a drum loop here. I want to play it for you." When I wrote it, I thought, "This isn't going to sound very folky. I don't think it's going to go with mandolins and banjos." Then he played the loop for me and it sounded right.

I was raised by parents who really admired the religious leaders of the left, as many 60s and 70s liberals did.

But I benefit from the taxes I pay because I know how to access the benefits of the taxes.

The very best thing you can do is to try to write a song that has some sort of impact.

...we're all in a soup of trying to live by words, and trying to live by poetry. It's both humbling, and really flattering to know that my words are part of all that.

I really value people besides parents who nurture kids.

How I long to fall just a little bit, to dance out of the lines and stray from the light.