"Pretty much all I say politically is I encourage people to register to vote."
"As citizens we have to be more thoughtful and more educated and more informed. I turn on the TV and I see these grown people screaming at each other, and I think, well, if we don't get our civility back, we're in trouble."
"To me acting and singing are worlds apart."
"I don't ever worry about whether I'm being true to my country roots. My country roots were adopted. I never worry about what I can do and what I should do. I just do what I want to do."
"I like to think about stringing songs together like a string of pearls, or a string of beads, but ultimately it has to be stuff that really works with the band, and gives a spin to the older material."
"I'm very influenced by landscapes, not so much the way places look as the way the names sound. In this country we've got so many cultures, and the place names - the Spanish names and the Indian names, which are so incredibly musical."
"The only time I ever appeared in the 'Enquirer' was for a piece about people who let their hair grow gray. I guess I'm not much of a wild child."
"I'm nowhere with country music. I don't hear much of it, so I shouldn't venture an opinion, but when it finds me, it seems formulaic."
"Country taught me how to sing, it put me on a path. But I was never going to be locked into a formula. I don't want to be considered a current country artist."
"I have just enough people paying attention that I have the freedom to be in charge. And I have a great record company - Nonesuch understands what I'm about."
"I think musicians are always very generous in promoting anything good they hear. It's just kind of in our nature."
"I'm not a trained musician. When folks talk about 'Well, you go to this or that' - the tenor, or the third part - I don't really know what they're talking about."
"You get to a certain point in your life where you get closer to the end of your life than the beginning, and it colors your life, in a way."
"Every life is precious."
"Somehow, when you think about yourself in old age, you think you're going to be this completely different person that you don't even recognize - because you can't imagine it, you know?"
"There's a certain grace in accepting what your life is and embracing all the good things that have been - but there's still an expectation of good things to come. Not necessarily what you expected."
"You meet a lot of people and have a lot of experiences, and they color you and stay with you - but I'm not the grieving widow. Life is much more complicated and interesting and full of zigs and zags than that."
"I really have shaken hands with where my voice is right now. I think it's got a little deeper; it's got some more grooves in it."
"I have to have a guitar sitting around. I sing in the shower. I sing around the house. The music comes secondary. The lyrics come first."
"Well, I've always been eclectic."
"You know, I'm a fan of Laurie Anderson. One of my favorite records is 'The Ugly One With the Jewels,' a spoken-word record. It's an extraordinary album."
"I was a folk singer who became totally over the edge with country music. I found my voice and style working with Gram Parsons. I learned how to listen to George Jones records and the Louvin Brothers."
"Well, I'm just very blessed that I still love my work and I can still work, I still have an audience and I love what I do."
"I'm even able to have kind of a little bit of a second career in dog rescue. Doesn't pay anything, but it's become a real passion for me."
"My parents were not very happy. They were very worried about me pursuing a career that even if I had talent might not give me the happiness and the success that they - any parent hopes for their child."
