Now somebody will ask me, Pete, how can you prove these songs really make a difference? And I have to confess I can't prove a darn thing, except that the people in power must think they do something, because they keep the songs off the air.

One of the things I'm most proud of about my country is the fact that we did lick McCarthyism back in the fifties.

I still call myself a communist, because communism is no more what Russia made of it than Christianity is what the churches make of it.

I keep reminding people that an editorial in rhyme is not a song. A good song makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you think.

Food is one of the great organizing tools.

It was Rachel Carson's famous book 'Silent Spring' that got me involved with the environment. I read it in The New Yorker, in installments. Up to then, I'd thought the main job to do is help the meek inherit the Earth. And I still, that's a job that's got to be done. But I realized if we didn't do something soon, what the meek would inherit would be a pretty poisonous place to live.

The truth is a rabbit in a bramble patch. All you can do is circle around and say it's somewhere in there.