In the laughing times we know that we are lucky, and in the quiet times we know that we are blessed. And we will not be alone.Collection: Alone
If you're looking for can-do, earthy-crunchy attitude then you've got to go to Wisconsin.Collection: Attitude
Sometimes I see myself fine, sometimes I need a witness. And I like the whole truth, but there are nights I only need forgiveness.Collection: Forgiveness
Therapy was the biggest romance of my life.Collection: Romantic
Writing 'February' made me realize that breaking form is a way of letting the song be human.
Sometimes life gives us lessons sent in ridiculous packaging.
How I long to fall just a little bit, to dance out of the lines and stray from the light.
But if you're looking to be spooked by really tall trees then you've got to go to Washington State.
You always have to wrestle with chaos.
I'm becoming a professional nomad and enjoying that whole part of my life.
The very best thing you can do is to try to write a song that has some sort of impact.
And where does magic come from? I think that magic's in the learning.
But social justice and the environment are very tied together in my head.
I was raised by parents who really admired the religious leaders of the left, as many 60s and 70s liberals did.
I watch people throw aluminum cans in the trash, and I think of all the stories I've heard about the over-mining of aluminum, the erosion that happens, and the trees that fall down.
Everyone has to decide how they're going to appear in their lives, how they're going to put themselves out there to the world.
I try to be careful not to do single concerts where I fly out, do my show, turn around and go home.
Arizona is really cool but I couldn't stay there for too long.
Milwaukee one of my favorite cites; I think Milwaukee is #1.
I think music is another language.
The funny thing is musicians often love to go to see visual art because you've got all these pictures to turn into metaphors.
If a war has to happen, a war has to happen.
I really value people besides parents who nurture kids.
But I benefit from the taxes I pay because I know how to access the benefits of the taxes.
I have a sordid past.
Being told that you are good at banter is like being told that you are a good person.
The very best thing for music would be to live next door to a person who listens to loud music so you could mishear music everyday and mutate it to your own means.
A song versus an album is not like a scene versus a play.
You'll almost encounter a superstition amongst musicians, people sort of go through strange rituals, what they need to do to write a song.
The first concert I saw was Cheryl Wheeler.
There's a marketing scheme that tells you that pregnancy and child rearing will make you into a moron, that your kids are only happy when you're buying them stuff. It's hard being a parent, but I laugh a lot and smile a lot and really enjoy it. The ratio of laughter to sadness is higher. There's part of me that wants to broadcast that. Parenting only affirmed what I already cared about, and that's good.Collection: Laughter
I would encourage people to bridge broadly and creatively in their communities, not just because that creates the most fun and resiliency, but also because it creates the most points of access for people to be part of the community, which is what democracy is at its best.Collection: Fun
God looks like a guidance counselor, God's got that smile. God says, 'How could this be? That's really odd I guess I'll have to check my records, silly me, you know, I'm only God.'Collection: Silly
Go ahead, push your luck, find out how much love the world can hold.Collection: Luck
We all do the wrong thing. And then we have to wake up the next morning and live with the fact that we have done things that are wrong.Collection: Morning
Basically, I have found that people who have tried to start communities out of good feelings or hippie-dippie abstract concepts of love - it doesn't work. But if you just concentrate on what is the identity of your town - its waterfalls, its battles, its notable mill strike or those things - you dig into what your town is from its rock formations to its history to its food. Then this thing called community happens all the time.Collection: Hippie
When we learn about ourselves, we can evolve.Collection: Evolve
The light that stopped the night felt like forgiveness.Collection: Revenge
Slavery doesn't have any positives.Collection: Slavery
Some of us have such incredible things that can keep us from acting. We have the luxury of drinking such good wine, and having such good information at our fingertips. I can look up anything on my computer. And I can call any friend at the drop of a hat on my cell phone. And I can have beautiful clothing and great food in a world where people are being tortured. I have some responsibility for that.Collection: Beautiful
There's always people who came 600 miles to hear the song you didn't play.Collection: Song
The summer ends and we wonder who we are And there you go, my friends, with your boxes in your car And today I passed the high school, the river, the maple tree I passed the farms that made it Through the last days of the century And I knew that I was going to learn again Again, in this less hazy light I saw the fields beyond the fields The fields beyond the fieldCollection: Summer
And the ones that know you so well are the ones that can swallow you whole.Collection: Wells
Guiding the ship takes more the your skill. It is the compass inside as the strength of your will.Collection: Skills
I fear that to fall in love with you is to fall from a great and gruesome height.Collection: Falling In Love
There's tons of anger and angst and peculiarity and eccentricity, and good towns know that that's okay. But towns that are kind of bullshit don't know what to do with all those feelings.Collection: Bullshit
Every time you opt in to kindness Make one connection, used to divide us It echoes all over the worldCollection: Time
But where do we come up with this notion of a woman in which the less space you take up, the more you're worth?Collection: Space