I was born on this mountain, this mountains my home, she holds me and keeps me from worry and woe.

I wasn't raised to not write about issues, and I'm just living in really politically charged times. You know, I'd rather write songs about girls, but it's just hard to do right now.

Bob Dylan is one of the very few people in the history of popular music who you can unquestionably apply that word [genius] to.

Greg Trooper writes great songs, including one of my very favorite songs in the world, Little Sister. On top of all that, there's his voice - an instrument I have coveted for 15 years.

I'm used to writing stories with a beginning a middle and an end in four minutes.

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.

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