Dan Bern quotes:

And I have a dream of a New American Language, one with a little bit more Spanish. I have a dream of a new pop music, that tells the truth with a good beat and some nice harmonies.

You see, everything I know, I learned from my dad. He learned it all from his, and his dad just happened to be wrong about everything

Everybody's baby, ain't nobody's gal.

So often these days eating Indian food passes for spirituality. I don't meditate, I don't pray, but I eat two samosa's every day.

Sometimes you get lost and you find something new.

Even when there's not a joke or a hook, the first line has to be good and snapem to attention. Songs ain't novels. You don't have 30 pages to slowly wrap somebody in. They're more like short stories or poems. If the first line hasn't grabbed them, you won't get to the second line. Once you've developed an audience, you may have some luxury and trust, so you don't have to knock 'em over the head with line one.

I realized that the only purpose to revolution is to be able to love who you want, how you want, when you want and where you want...

Stop...Stop what you're doing...Stop what you're doing and breathe.

I'd like to leave America for someplace where they would not know a word of English and I might be understood.

Are you gonna follow your soul? Or just the style of the day?

Don't let your heart get broken by this world.

Every time I write a song, it's different. I'm all about the rhythm of the words and the melody. Musically, you gotta have a throbbing pulse going. But as far as what it's all about, there's a million ways to go. You have to invent a new code for every song. Then you have to break it. It's like Scrabble or a crossword puzzle on steriods. I could talk about the process for days. But it's never dull and there's no one way in.