I think the criticism that I take to heart is from other writers that I respect.

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 really believe that if I make records that are indispensable to my audience, they'll go out and spend money to buy them, even if they've already downloaded them. If they can afford it. If they can't, I'd rather they be able to download it than not get it at all.

Bob Dylan emerged from nowhere, like an alien. And that was just the start.

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

What saves me from being a drug addict is sort of the opposite. It's me realizing that I don't really control anything.

My main area of activism is the death penalty, and it will continue to be once this crisis is over with.