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

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.

The creative core of New York has never been native New Yorkers; it's people from all over the world.

It's incredibly irresponsible to allow victims' family members to witness executions.

The reason music became so powerful to our generation is that it's art you can consume in your car, and we were driving around a lot.

I think the criticism that I take to heart is from other writers that I respect.

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.