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

I ain't ever satisfied.

I have a low tolerance for mediocrity in music and life. I'm into pain and joy and the in-between doesn't interest me.

You make decisions, and that's what separates art from some other pop music. It doesn't mean that you can't make an embarrassing amount of money, for a borderline Marxist, doing something that you love, but it does mean that this huge pool of money that was out there when I started making records in the '80s is gone.

I have no doubt in mind that I justify the space I take up in the world.

I'm trying to make records where people don't feel cheated. Nashville has been guilty of insulting the Country Music audience for years and years.

Maybe I'm not as big a star as Bruce Springsteen because I'm not as good. I don't know. It doesn't matter. I still have an audience of a certain size. I think it's one of the things I'm luckiest.