As anyone who goes into dog-rescue knows, it is not a for-profit business, but the rewards are priceless for me.

I'm so grateful that I'm able to do something about this passion that I have for shelter animals. In a strange way, it completes me. It means so much to me and makes me feel like I'm truly making a difference.

Patriotism can be good or bad. Knee-jerk patriotism can be very bad. I'm patriotic almost to the point of self-consciousness, but I love my country the way I love a friend or a child who I would correct if she was going the wrong way. Who I expect the very best from.

Normal is a cycle on a washing machine.

When you're just singing a beautiful melody with a story that's true to the heart, you don't need a lot of embellishment.

Animals have a much better attitude to life and death than we do. They know when their time has come. We are the ones that suffer when they pass, but it's a healing kind of grief that enables us to deal with other griefs that are not so easy to grab hold of.

I was the audience he wanted to reach. Gram Parsons' writing brought his own personal generations poetry and vision into the very traditional format of country music, and he came up with something completely different