Do-so is more important than say-so.

You'd be surprised how many stupid mistakes I've made. I make stupid mistakes all the time, and some of them have been very big stupid mistakes.

I was working for Alan Lomax in the Library of Congress folk song archive, and starting to realize what a wealth of different kinds of music there was in this country that you never heard on the radio.

We have more freedom of the press than any other country in a similar position. Even way back in the frightened '50s, Communists, for example, could publish their magazine. The KKK published their own books. But face it, the mass media is controlled by money.

I think folk music helps reinforce your sense of history. An old song makes you think of times gone by.

My mother playing the violin and my father and grandfather playing the piano, classical stuff.

You can't work on everything all the time, so start where you are.