My dad, the old professor, used to say, 'Never get into an argument about what's folk music and what isn't.'

It was only through the years that I realized what an absolutely extraordinarily thoughtful person Dr. King was.

Every time I'm in the woods, i feel like I'm in church.

I believe that all technological societies tend to self-destruct. The reason is that the very things that make us a successful technological society, such as our curiosity, our ambition and determination, will also cause us to fall.

I remember someone once saying, "Pete, you know you really should take voice lessons." And I said, "Well, if I could find any voice teacher that could teach me to sing like Lead Belly I'd spend every cent to study under him." But every time you'd go to a voice teacher, he'd teach you to warble, as if you'd want to be an opera singer, and that's not what I'm interested in.

There is no such thing as a wrong note ... just as long as you're singing along.

I don't think of God as an old white man with no belly button, nor even an old black woman with no belly button. But I agree that God is something eternal. Something cannot come out of nothing. I believe God is Everything. And I believe in infinity.