If you don't mark your successes, the day your ship comes in could be just another day at the office, and there's no poetry in that.

I think ultimately, people are selfish in that department [blues], in a good way - the reason we're attracted to art is because it somehow reflects us. And I think, ultimately, we're a tribal people by nature. We're not individualistic. We almost like to hear that there's other people in a worse state than us. Sometimes even more than we like hearing there are people in better states than us.

As a busker, one thing that does not work is self-consciousness. A busker needs to be working. A busker needs to shed all ego and get down to work. Play your songs, play them well, earn your money, and don't get in people's way.

I grew up wearing black arm-bands when the hunger strikers died. I went on those marches. I grew up basically a Provo, though I never obviously got into any activities. I was writing 'IRA, Brits out' on walls all over where I grew up, but that was a false sense of Irishness.

You know, albums are a funny thing. They're not like an intellectual decision. It's a collection of your kind of musings.

I've always felt that if I ever got cynical, I would have to stop making music because I'd just be poisoning the air.

Well, everything about singing, I learned from busking. Everything I learned about songwriting, I learned from busking.