I always knew that sooner or later there would come somebody like Woody Guthrie who could make a great song every week. Dylan certainly had a social agenda, but he was such a good poet that most of his attempts were head and shoulders above things that I and others were trying to do. ... If I had an address, I'd send him a birthday card saying, 'keep on going.'

My mother gave me a ukulele at age eight, and I sang the popular tunes of the day.

This world is so full of hypocrisy, the only way you can be honest is to be a hermit.

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

When I got out of school, I spent two years just hitchhiking around. Every time I met some old farmer who could play banjo, I got him to teach me a lick or two. Little by little, I put it together.

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

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.