“Folk Music is the map of singing.”

The dimension of cultural equity needs to be added to the humane continuum of liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and social justice.

I knew Bobby Dylan back in the days when he lived in the village.

He used to come and see me and sing songs for me, saying they ought to go into my next collected book on American folk music.

The modern computer with all its various gadgets and wonderful electronic facilities now makes it possible to preserve and reinvigorate all the cultural richness of mankind.

The essence of America lies not in the headlined heroes…but in the everyday folks who live and die unknown, yet leave their dreams as legacies

My life has been devoted to opposing that tendency.

That the land that had produced American jazz, the blues, the spirituals, the mountain ballads and the work songs had gone sterile.

And the thing that I always tried to do with important singers when I met them was to sit down and record everything they knew, give them a first real run-through of their art.

People were saying that Southern folk song was dead.

We now have cultural machines so powerful that one singer can reach everybody in the world, and make all the other singers feel inferior because they’re not like him.

Crushing the life out of all the other human possibilities.

Once that gets started, he gets backed by so much cash and so much power that he becomes a monstrous invader from outer space.

Ordnance Survey maps, tea and crumpets, summer showers and foggy winter evenings – every bit of it.

Maine is wonderful. It can be very hard. I mean, if you look at the profile maps it doesn’t look it, but somehow when you get out there it’s really steep and hard.

Somewhere there is a map of how it can be done.

I’m just the smallest dot in a big map of human history.

Scientists have shown that because positive and open mindsets produce exploration and experiential learning, they also come to produce more-accurate mental maps of the world.

Do not disregard or hate the maps on your skin and soul. These scars have never diminished your worth, they are the stories that make you whole.