Emmylou Harris

Emmylou: 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.

Emmylou: I wanted to be a country artist because I wanted to carry on what Gram was doing, even though I didn't quite understand it because I had only worked with him a year. I just experimented and did what I felt was right.

Emmylou: With the Constitution they set something in motion that is a pretty extraordinary document and a recipe for the way you would want people to live.

Emmylou: To me acting and singing are worlds apart.

Emmylou: Pretty much all I say politically is I encourage people to register to vote.

Emmylou: 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.

Emmylou: 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.

Emmylou: 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.

Emmylou: 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.

Emmylou: I think the frightening thing is when we lose our civility, which I think is happening across the board, and I find disturbing.