The world will be saved by people fighting for their homes.
Plagiarism is basic to all culture.
And this is the origin of pop music: it’s a professional music which draws upon both folk music and fine arts music as well.
Anybody who wants to learn everything is pretty stupid. You learn what you can.
If I’ve got a talent, it’s for picking the right song at the right time for the right audience. And I can always seem to get people to sing with me.
A song is like a picture of a bird in flight; the bird was moving before the picture was taken, and no doubt continued after.
A good song can only do good, and I am proud of the songs I have sung. I hope to be able to continue singing these songs for all who want to listen, Republicans, Democrats, and independents.
Again, I say I will be glad to tell what songs I have ever sung, because singing is my business.
I came from an intellectual family. Most were doctors, preachers, teachers, businessmen. My grandfather was a small businessman. His father was an abolitionist doctor, and his father was an immigrant from Germany.
One of the things I’m most proud of about my country is the fact that we did lick McCarthyism back in the fifties.
My mother playing the violin and my father and grandfather playing the piano, classical stuff.
I decline to discuss, under compulsion, where I have sung, and who has sung my songs, and who else has sung with me, and the people I have known.
Not everybody has to sing the melody.
And the people in the houses All went to the University And they got put in boxes Little boxes all the same, Little boxes all the same, Little boxes all the same, Little boxes all the same And they all come out all the same.
Music has always had the ability to comfort and inspire.
I’m still a communist in the sense that I don’t believe the world will survive with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer – I think that the pressures will get so tremendous that the social contract will just come apart.
According to my definition of God, I’m not an atheist. Because I think God is everything. Whenever I open my eyes, I’m looking at God. Whenever I’m listening to something, I’m listening to God.
I love my country very dearly, and I greatly resent the implication that some of the places that I have sung and some of the people that I have known, and some of my opinions, whether they are religious or philosophical, make me less of an American.
If there’s something wrong, speak up!
All the arts, music, the visual arts, acting and dancing arts, cooking arts, and I believe sports, will save the human race because they can leap over barriers, religions, leap over barriers of race, politics.