Songwriters are expanding time rather than compressing time. My short stories tend to be old fashioned, with a beginning, middle and end.

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.

What songwriting does better than almost anything is empathy - it's incredibly empathetic. The reason people sat around in bars when they were bummed out and listened to country songs is because it made them feel better in the long run.

New Orleans is a unique environment.

Fundamentalism, as practiced by the Taliban, is the enemy of real thought, and religion, too.

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.

Politics and music don't necessarily go hand in hand. They just do for me.