[Bob] Dylan began to incorporate things into that scene that were controversial then. He got shouted at in Newport when he played electric guitar, for instance. There was a certain purity that was sought among those people.

Everything around a writer, or musician in the record business, probably everything in all the United States or in all of western civilization, is about competition.

Listen, the story of the United States is this: One kid, without anything, walks out of his house, down the road, with nothing but a guitar and conquers the world. And we've done that again, and again, and again – Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Rogers, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters.

Honesty is the most subversive of all disguises.

My advice for young people is that, if you want to be a musician, the thing to do is practice eight hours a day.

Risk is what separates the artist from the artisan.

I don't want to make music for people who don't care about music.