I'd really rather put songs on people's lips than in their ears.

I was 16 when I came to New York. I had graduated to a tenor banjo in the school jazz band, and it was kind of boring - just chords, chords, chords. Then my father took me to a mountain music and dance festival in Asheville, North Carolina, and there I saw relatively uneducated people playing great music by ear.

I want to turn the clock back to when people lived in small villages and took care of each other.

A song is like a picture of a bird in flight; the bird was moving before the picture was taken, and no doubt continued after.

This banjo surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.

Food is one of the great organizing tools.

Participation - that's what's gonna save the human race.