The singer-songwriter has always played music that was stylistically rooted in the '30s and the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. But the fact of the matter is that none of us remember the Depression firsthand.

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.

I'm not a racist, but I do have to work at not being a racist, because of where I grew up.

I've been on every interstate highway in the lower forty-eight states by now and I never get tired of the view.

I'm from Texas. I hitchhiked to Tennessee when I was 19 years old, and it is really beautiful in Tennessee.

If I can get Me out of the way, I can do anything.

People hate good books to be over. I wish I could write a 700-page book.