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

Every leap forward that I make is by reaching back and firmly getting a footing in the past, and pushing forward as hard as I can.

I can deal with conservatives in a democracy. With real conservatives, I don't agree with them, but I understand why they believe what they believe and I believe they're being honest with me about it.

The creative core of New York has never been native New Yorkers; it's people from all over the world.

I was born on this mountain, this mountains my home, she holds me and keeps me from worry and woe.

The stupidest thing that a writer can do is write a memoir I think, unless it's right before you die -- maybe.

By the time I wrote those first three songs for his new CD ... I wanted to push the poetics as hard as I could push them, and not decide the songs were finished until I committed them to whatever the recording format was. I went through drafts right up until I recorded every single one of them.