My gift's primarily literary. That being said, I ended up a musician. By the time I made the bluegrass record...I'm more impressed with myself when I push the envelope musically than I am when I push it literality.

My therapist says that I choose women that I couldn't possibly succeed in a relationship with because I really want to be alone. Which sounds complicated and convoluted to me, but I don't know. Maybe she's right. There's a part of me that wants that.

You make decisions, and that's what separates art from some other pop music. It doesn't mean that you can't make an embarrassing amount of money, for a borderline Marxist, doing something that you love, but it does mean that this huge pool of money that was out there when I started making records in the '80s is gone.

I don't think I'm a political songwriter as much as I am just a political person. I think it's in my fabric.

I have a low tolerance for mediocrity in music and life. I'm into pain and joy and the in-between doesn't interest me.

I've been a serial husband, and I've done it badly every time.

Sympathetic characters usually have a voice. They usually don't have any trouble being heard.