I was comparatively late in understanding Bob Dylan's overwhelming importance as a songwriter. Everybody who does my job exists in the shadow of Bob Dylan. There are two categories: Dylan and everybody else. It's as simple as that. And it's going to be that way until he dies.

New Orleans is a unique environment.

I had everything I need to get me killed.

Politics has always been in my music. Anybody who doesn't understand how political "Copperhead Road" is isn't listening very well.

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.

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

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.