Leadbelly's guitar is in the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame.

But in my imagination this whole thing developed and I started mixing up old folk songs with the Beatles beat and taking them down to Greenwich Village and playing them for the people there.

Yes, basically, like you said, I'll work out a chord pattern and work out the lyrics over that.

Once I've written a song, I sometimes refine them.

Leadbelly's guitar is in the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame.

Now, you can just get a laptop, get some software, put a microphone on it and make a record. You have to know how to do it. It does help if you've had 35 or 40 years of experience in the studio. But, it still levels the playing field so artists can record their own stuff.

I play a couple basic folks songs and break them down. I did that on a six string. I can't recall all the songs on it. There's some finger picking on it.

I always got a kick out of it when they called it the California Sound because it really came out of Liverpool and Greenwich Village.

I don't really collect guitars.

Well, I guess that early 12 string. The first Martin I bought. I bought it around 1957 with money I earned as a janitor assistant. I bought brand new. I still have that.

The first 12-string guitar I bought was probably around 1957.

I got into computers back in the early '80s, so it was a natural progression of learning about e-mail in the mid-'80s and getting into the Internet when it opened up in the early '90s.

I love being on the sea and the rolling of the ship, and for me, it's not really happening until we get a little wave action going, I love that feeling.

I started playing guitar back in '56. I was a teenager, and guitars had just come in, and I had a thing for it and got one. Started learning lead breaks from songs, because that was the easiest thing to do at the time. I had the guitar for two years before I learned any chords. Really.

I think Wilco is going to definitely stand the test of time - no question - and Uncle Tupleo, and the whole No Depression scene, which is now alt-country. I think that's going to be around a long time.

I think the Internet is an awful lot like FM radio was when it broke out in the late '60s. It's kind of a wild and wily kind of format. They could play 20 songs in a row that had the word 'blue' in them, or whatever they wanted to do.

I think what makes the Byrds stand up all these years is the basis in folk music. Folk music, being a timeless art form, is the foundation of the Byrds. We were all from a folk background. We considered ourselves folk singers even when we strapped on electric instruments and dabbled in different things.

I was raised a Roman Catholic and had to go to the eight o'clock Mass every morning and have communion and wear a tie, kind of like a restricted life style. Then in the '60s, we got wild and let it go and started looking in other places to see where God really was, and I came back to the Christian thing.

I'm a huge fan of home recording. I think it levels the playing field. You don't need $100,000 to record a studio CD.

I've always considered myself a folk singer, even though we strapped on Rickenbacker guitars and played pretty loud.

I've always loved the songs of the sea. I was first introduced to them back in 1957, at the Old Town School of Folk Music. I used to go to Pete Seeger concerts, and he would do songs like 'Ruben Ranzo' and talk about how the sailors sang songs to do their work - to raise the anchors, pull up the sails and that sort of thing.

One of my favorite albums is Bob Gibson and Bob Camp, 'At the Gate of Horn.' It was a really dynamic album, almost like The Beatles, and way before its time... around 1960 or so.

People have told me that other artists have been influenced by my music, and it's flattering. It's a wonderful thing.

That's one of the things I like best about folk music is the beautiful melodies - and the harmonies - that exist in it. And of course, some of the stories, the story songs.

The original Byrds were very much Beatles-influenced, and then we gradually got our own sound. We started mixing things together more.

To me, being in the big time is not that big of a deal. I've been there; I know what it is. It's exciting, but it's also a lot of work and pressure. I love sort of flying under the radar where we can play theaters and sell CD's on the Internet, and it's really kind of a cool time.

Maybe it's my 15 minutes of fame, maybe it's longer.

The present condition of fame is merely fashion.

The fame aspect of winning the Masters... besides being married and becoming a father, that's a strong third there.

Fame and tranquility can never be bedfellows.

The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle.

I wanted to be an actress. In college I was a serious feminist and very political. I was determined to get one thing out of my career and that was respect. I didn't want money. I didn't care about fame.

I was the executive editor on a little magazine called Greek Accent, whose only claim to fame is that its art director went on to be the art director of Discover for many years.

But once I acclimated and really used fame for what it was offering me as a tool to serve my life purpose of inspiring and contributing, then it started to get fun again.

Every day I work at not taking this fame thing seriously. Fortunately I have a great group of friends who help me do this.

I've experienced as much fame as I ever want to.

There is not in the world so toilsome a trade as the pursuit of fame; life concludes before you have so much as sketched your work.

It was never the fame or fortune that drove me to act. It was something I love and enjoy doing it. A lot of people identify who they are by what they do and that's not me. It's what I do but not who I am. Who I am is a parent. I'm a family man.

I'm the age now that Rock was when he picked me up, so I can understand how he felt - how his fame limited his freedom. You get kinder as you go along.

Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other.

Sometimes I'm uncomfortable with the level of fame I've got! It all depends on the day and what's going on. I don't desire any more fame. I don't need it.

Luckily, thanks to the way my parents taught me, I think I can handle the fame in the right manner.

Ah, who can tell how hard it is to climb the steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar?

Fame, like the river, is narrowest where it is bred, and broadest afar off.

Socrates' fame spread all over Greece, and the most respected and educated men from all around came to him, in order to enjoy his friendly company and instruction.

Acquaintance lessens fame.

I've written enough books with real celebrities, such as Walter Payton and Hank Aaron and Billy Graham, to know that fame looks good only to people who don't have it.

Honor means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost.

If we should be blessed by some great reward, such as fame or fortune, it's the fruit of a seed planted by us in the past.