“Crushing the life out of all the other human possibilities.”

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.

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

Folk Music is the map of singing.

General, your tank is a powerful vehicle It smashes down forests and crushes a hundred men. But it has one defect: It needs a driver.

Screaming at children over their grades, especially to the point of the child’s tears, is child abuse, pure and simple. It’s not funny and it’s not good parenting. It is a crushing, scarring, disastrous experience for the child. It isn’t the least bit funny.

I think working in the industry, I’d be pretty nervous to have a celebrity crush.

I think working in the industry, I’d be pretty nervous to have a celebrity crush. I’d be pretty nervous if my boyfriend did as well because inevitably you’d end up working with them and then it would feel very suspicious.

The advice I have for new artists is this – write great songs and play them live as often as possible. Get residencies all over town and crush it.

Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.

All Buddhas preach emptiness. Why? Because they wish to crush the concrete ideas of the students. If a student even clings to an idea of emptiness, he betrays all Buddhas.

Many persons lead lives of crushing boredom.