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.

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

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

I don't get in vote in whether or how people remember me when I'm gone. It's really dangerous to sit around and worry about it too much, for me. It gets me way too in myself to worry about what people are going to think about me when I'm not around anymore.

I ain't ever satisfied.

Woody Guthrie was what folks who don't believe in anything would call an anomaly.

New Orleans is a unique environment.