Turn off the TV and start digging around for information that's not from a corporation trying to make money.

I was mainly influenced by the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, and others like Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash.

I've always written about things that cause me to feel something.

This is how it has been since time began: If you want to make something really worthwhile and true, then you have to suffer for it.

We got CEOs making 200 times the worker's pay, but they'll fight like hell against raising the minimum wage.

I don't know what other people are like, I haven't been able to crawl inside anybody else.

Writing, overall, has never been what I'd call fun. It's fulfilling. It doesn't come real easy for me.