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.

I make an embarrassing amount of money for a borderline Marxist, just by selling 100,000 records. I don't sell millions of records, and I don't need to.

I really believe that if I make records that are indispensable to my audience, they'll go out and spend money to buy them, even if they've already downloaded them. If they can afford it. If they can't, I'd rather they be able to download it than not get it at all.

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

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

I grew up counterculture. I'm essentially a hippie, and I'm essentially a folkie.

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