John Hammond persuaded Columbia to put it out as a single, and it was the only one I ever had that sold more than 20,000.

I came along and was a teenager in the Depression, and nobody had jobs. So I went out hitchhiking, when I met a man named Woody Guthrie. He was the single biggest part of my education.

I've found that festivals are a relatively painless way to meet people and make a few points that need making, without having to hit them over the head with too many speeches.

One of the things I'm most proud of about my country is the fact that we did lick McCarthyism back in the fifties.

Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don't.

Some of my ancestors were religious dissenters who came to America over three hundred years ago. Others were abolitionists in New England in the eighteen forties and fifties.