Every leap forward that I make is by reaching back and firmly getting a footing in the past, and pushing forward as hard as I can.

I don't think I'm a political songwriter as much as I am just a political person. I think it's in my fabric.

At home, I'm lucky if I can write three or four hours before the phone starts ringing and the kids want to go to soccer.

To me, religion is an agreement between a group of people about what God is. Spirituality is a one-on-one relationship.

I don't spend a lot of time feeling sorry for myself, trying to compare how many records I've sold or how much money I've made.

What saves me from being a drug addict is sort of the opposite. It's me realizing that I don't really control anything.

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.