There is an urgent need for Americans to look deeply into themselves and their actions, and musical poetry is perhaps the most effective mirror available. Every newspaper headline is a potential song.

A protest song is a song that's so specific that you cannot mistake it for bullshit.

It's always the old to lead us to the war. It's always the young to fall.

America is two Mack trucks colliding on a superhighway because all the drivers are on amphetamines.

Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make that attempt.

And if there's any hope for America, it lies in a revolution, and if there's any hope for a revolution in America, it lies in getting Elvis Presley to become Che Guevara.

It is wrong to expect a reward for your struggles. The reward is the act of struggle itself, not what you win. Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make that attempt. That's morality, that's religion. That's art. That's life.