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.

I never intended to make a living from music. That's the funny thing. I wanted to be a journalist.

To everything there is a season.

You have a right to your opinion and I've got a right to mine. Period.

Town after town has but one newspaper or one radio station. It is often owned by Murdoch. Yes, we don't have as much freedom of the press as we think we have - although the traditional freedom of speech is strongly rooted in American culture.

I write a song because I want to. I think the moment you start writing it to make money, you're starting to kill yourself artistically.

The key to the future of the world is finding the optimistic stories and letting them be known.