What kind of religion is it that would encourage the parent to shelter the child from any outside influences and punish it by putting it out in a world you never had any way of learning about?

Humans are the only animals that shit in their own nest.

Yeah, I am a hick. I am naive, and I am sincere and it's wonderfully unfashionable.

I regard myself as a true American musician, and I play every style that is my heritage.

Whatever my image is, it's my image and I have responsibility for it.

I thought, this looks like a fucking butcher's shop. I am not gonna take this sitting down. So they come to get me and I start screamin', and some cop is just beggin' me to kick him in the balls. So I do."

Everyone thinks young people are alienated from the system. But when you present them with a viable alternative, they will be the first to take it. And then watch out.

Mainstream media would convince you that there's commercial culture and that's all - but this other music is still here.

Make your own music. It can be done.

What I'd like is to have an integrated life again.

I've been through some dark times but I've experienced joy too. Now that joy can't be suppressed.

I've gone through a spiritual journey through all of this. I was lost and now I'm found.

Record Companies know how vulnerable creativity is and that the slightest attack can make artists feel like abused children and they'll retreat. I refuse to look at them as my parents. I just look at them as equals in a power struggle.

Writing and singing does give me some kind of release from the demons of my past, it is a therapy of sorts, but to be honest, my marriage played a more important role in the acceptance of myself than performance has ever done."

I need to be able to decide the direction and the appropriateness of the project I choose to do. Otherwise, let the vice president of business affairs make the record.

The thing I fail to do is fully comprehend what's given back to me by the audience. You would think you would be a performer partly so you could feel all the appreciation or adulation, but I haven't quite managed that yet.

My grandmother had a Miss Margaret's School of Dance to teach tap and ballet to kids, but I never studied it. I was raised a Mormon and they're dancing fools. It's the only vice they have - dancing.

I accepted a change in my life. I didn't choose that change and those are the best changes to make.

I want to see feminism put back into the hands of women who can use from it.

MORE QUOTES

I told the executives at Mercury, 'Hey, you're dealing with an artist who can do gospel in very surprising ways.' They asked me, 'Are you sure you don't want to make an acoustic album?'

I walked along that slippery slope where if you fail through lack of faith, you sell your soul to the devil.

I'm too shy, really to be able to hang out with my heroes for too long.

I'll do an earth day benefit but I don't intend to become a spokesperson for the rainforests.

In New York , I hung out at CBGB's. I'd go and see these hardcore matinees every Sunday and I'd think, 'Yeah, this is like a fiddle festival.'

As soon as I stopped sleeping around to survive, that's when things got really drastic. That dividing line is real clear in my mind.

I'm a perfectionist, which I think is a mistake.

Music is too important to be left to professionals.

Ideals are not something I can control. It's not logic that convinces me of something, it's what my heart says. My heart has a way of involving me in things, which can only be good for the music.

As I look back over my life, before I had any real identity, I was a traveler. I grew up an Army brat, a runaway, an activist, and a musician. All my life I've been traveling.

I would emphasize the consistency, rather than the differences.

I'm taking Spanish classes - I've got an eye towards Mexico.

Because I wrote songs for the love of it for so long I can say 'I am a songwriter and whether I make money from it or not, I'm still going to write songs because its one of my favorite things to do.' The fact that it becomes a recording is secondary, it's not a motivation.