Food is one of the great organizing tools.

Anybody who wants to learn everything is pretty stupid. You learn what you can.

I like to say I'm more conservative than Goldwater. He just wanted to turn the clock back to when there was no income tax.

It was only through the years that I realized what an absolutely extraordinarily thoughtful person Dr. King was.

It's been my belief that learning how to do something in your hometown is the most important thing.

How can you save the world you have not seen if you can't save the community you have seen?

He [Alan Lomax] started right off trying to find people who could introduce folk songs to city people. He found a young actor named Burl Ives and said, "Burl, you know a lot of great country songs learned from your grandmother, don't you know people would love to hear them?" He put on radio programs. He persuaded CBS to dedicate "The School of the Air" for one year to American folk music. He'd get some old sailor to sing an old sea shanty with a cracked voice. Then he'd get me to sing it with my banjo.