Amplifying acoustic instruments more than a little is really cheating, and everything becomes a compromise.

What I wanted to hear didn't exist, so it was necessary for me to go out and create it.

I want people to come to my music without prejudice. I want them to get the music first. And who I am isn't that important. If they like the songs to me that's a good thing.

I'm glad I can do both full-band electric and solo acoustic performances. It's nice to have contrast, so if you get fed up with one, you can just switch to the other one. It's great to go to a town and play an acoustic show, and then you can come back a year later and play electric, and the show's really fairly different. The repertoire will be 50 percent different. The musical energy is completely different.

There's a part of me that wishes I'd never said one single solitary word on any subject publicly. Then I could have been the tortured poet, and there's so much mileage in that. But it's too late to stop now.

I try to look for the good in everybody, regardless of the way they're labeled.

To stand up on a stage alone with an acoustic guitar requires bravery bordering on heroism. Bordering on insanity.