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Use those talents you have. You will make it. You will give joy to the world. Take this tip from nature: The woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except those who sang best.

I'm really not good at anything else, so if I don't make it as a musician, I'll probably just end up living in the woods with a bunch of dogs.

I give bird songs to those who dwell in cities and have never heard them, make rhythms for those who know only military marches or jazz, and paint colors for those who see none.

If I'm going to be a caged bird, I'll sing the best song I can.

What I'm doing is basically the same as Bob Dylan did with folk songs and Woody Guthrie songs, the same as folk music's always done. I'm not going to sing about ploughing, but I'll write a song that sounds like it should be about ploughing.

Before I could talk, I would try to sing.

I realized I was tired of singing about trees and flowers. I wanted to sing about real life. From then on, nobody could tell me anything was better than blues.

I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.

As a songwriter, if you can touch people and make them feel a little less alone in the world, then you've done your job.

I try to make my music have the quiet spaces of folk, the intimacy, and the energy of rock.