The first step in solving a problem is admitting there is a problem to be solved.

Not everybody has to sing the melody.

I try to sing many different kinds of songs. If I sing a batch of humorous songs, I'll throw in a deadly serious song. Or if I'm singing too many serious songs, I'll throw in a ridiculous song, to mix it up.

Songwriters can’t explain. You get an idea and you don’t know where it’s come from. And if you’re lucky, you have a pencil or pen and can write it down.

I was never enthusiastic about being somebody who was supposed to be silent about being a member of something.

I learned by transcribing songs out of the Library of Congress collection in Washington where I was working. I got a job when I just turned twenty in 1939 and Alan [Lomax] needed some help. I listened to hundreds of records every week.

Many Americans knew their lives and their souls were being struggled for, and they fought for it. And I felt I should carry on.