But there's got to be an opening somewhere here in front of me. Through this maze of ugliness and greed.

My songs have always had hope and perseverance in them - I never write songs that have no escape hatch, no positivity.

I do like a song that can look good on a page without even being sung. I edit and edit and edit.

The songs I write should only be gauged by what other writers or peers are doing today. If the barometer for all songwriters was to match his body of work, then anyone you might mention alive or dead is a failure. But I've learned to not be too hung up on what's fair or not fair.

Those things interest me a lot in songwriting - the human nature of how people think, and the muck that we wind up in.

I liked getting the Grammy more than not getting it.

Bob Dylan led me to this kind of music - and it's his and ours. And it's nobody else's.