My dad was in a wheelchair and on oxygen for the last few years of his life.

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

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.

I have no doubt in mind that I justify the space I take up in the world.

The drama teacher that I had in high school, back in Texas, was the only teacher who didn't kick me out of his class. He turned me on to 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.' I had picked up Dylan with 'Bringing It All Back Home,' and he turned me on to the first couple of albums, which I hadn't heard.

Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world, and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.

From the moment [Bob] Dylan arrived as a songwriter, he was [so] much better than everybody else around.