In the old days gigging was everything. The whole of life was about gigs. Everything was about waiting for the gig and then doing the gig and going nuts and then afterwards the party and all the stuff that goes with it. And then that party continues through your twenties and thirties. I'm now 51, and it's still very much in my blood, but I'm really hard pushed... the gig is the party for me now.

To me, very much of what is artistic is people's very creative and inventive ways out of impossible situations.

I sometimes wonder how many of these lifetime achievement awards you can accept before you have to do the decent thing and die.

If you feel like singing along, don't.

We all have to face pain, and pain makes us grow.

It's hard to find a way forward. When you're 18 it happens in huge chunks every day, but after 20 years, growth is much more costly.

Bruce Springsteen's a rock star. Elton John is a rock star. I'm a folk musician. Honestly, I think that's true.