I still write more songs about girls than anything else.

I grew up counterculture. I'm essentially a hippie, and I'm essentially a folkie.

Maybe I'm not as big a star as Bruce Springsteen because I'm not as good. I don't know. It doesn't matter. I still have an audience of a certain size. I think it's one of the things I'm luckiest.

I feel like I owe my audience something. They feed my kids. And I really like my job, a lot.

The idea that murder victims' families are best served by continuing the cycle of violence is something that I consider to be not only a lie, but criminally negligent. You lie to victims' families when you tell them they're going to receive closure if they participate in the process and witness the execution of a human being.

Woody Guthrie was what folks who don't believe in anything would call an anomaly.

I don't spend a lot of time feeling sorry for myself, trying to compare how many records I've sold or how much money I've made.