The fact is that all the recording science and technology in the world is no substitute for a good song or for real feeling. Music is about feeling and if there isn't any genuine feeling, if the song isn't about anything that anyone gives a damn about, there's nothing you can do. All the technique that exists won't make it any good; it'll just make it technological. All the production values you add won't do anything except make it glossy.

Now record companies are run by lawyers and accountants. The shift from the one to the other was definitely related to when the takes started to get big.

The stupid thing I incorrectly believed for a long time is that I believed for a long time that some politicians could sometimes tell the truth.

When I was 11 years old, my parents wanted me to do something besides get in trouble. So they enrolled me in sailing classes at the Sea Shell Association in Santa Barbara, Calif. From the moment I climbed into that 8-foot dinghy in 1952, I knew instinctively what to do and sensed I had done it before.

I think ideas are still the most powerful things on the planet, and music is a great way to transmit them.

I believe in this country [the USA], I love this country, I believe in the idea of this country, and this country is an idea.

"It can't happen here" is number one on the list of famous last words.