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

I think it's obvious that democracy is something that is contagious, and it always has been.

We're Americans. I don't consider us to be evil, I just don't think we know any better. We're a really young culture. We're hillbillies, and the rest of the world sees us that way. I travel all over the world, and probably the only worse rednecks than us are the Australians. And they're an even younger country.

I don't get in vote in whether or how people remember me when I'm gone. It's really dangerous to sit around and worry about it too much, for me. It gets me way too in myself to worry about what people are going to think about me when I'm not around anymore.

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.

Or you can be like the Soviet Union, start out with ideals, and end up ceasing to exist.

You see things differently at 40 than you do at 31. Especially if you got to 40 the way I did.