“It’s an observation of an aspect of the human condition. The inability to grasp where we are at any given moment and go with it. Which is unfortunately too common a problem.”Bruce Cockburn (56)

“I wanted to write a Christmas song and I just thought it would be interesting to play at putting them [Joseph and Mary – Ed] in a human context. So Mary becomes a little bit shrewish and has a little bit of an attitude. The classic Mary figure is a far cry from any young Jewish mother I’ve ever run across. So I wanted to get it into something people could relate to.”Bruce Cockburn (56)

“This is from when my marriage broke up. And that broke a lot of things in me. The image “fascist architecture” came from Italy, from Mussolini’s period where the buildings are larger than life and what is supposed to celebrate the greatness of humanity actually dwarfs humanity. It seemed to me a suitable image for the things in ourselves, the structures we build that are built on false expectations or pretenses. The things we pretend to ourselves. And then when some catastrophe comes your way, like a marriage breaking up, those things crack and you get glimpses through them, the light comes through them. It’s not a comfortable thing.”Bruce Cockburn (56)

“This was written and addressed to the late Mark Heard. He was a fantastic songwriter. His death sent a shockwave through our whole community, and what that did in me was that song.”Bruce Cockburn (56)

“I was thinking of kids in a schoolyard. I was thinking of my daughter. Sitting there wanting to hold hands with some little boy and looking at a future, looking at the world around them. How different to when I was a kid when you could still have hope. Now I think that’s very difficult. This song is an attempt to offer a hopeful message to them: You still have to live and you have to give it your best shot.”Bruce Cockburn (57)

“I had just finished reading Shikasta by Doris Lessing. I was in the Canary Islands sitting on the beach under the moon. There’s that sense of standing on the edge of space, when you’re near to the ocean. But a person standing at the edge of the ocean is kind of comparable to the world on the edge of the galaxy. That sense of being on the edge of something so much bigger of which you are an inescapable part but which will engulf you if you don’t keep yourself together.”Bruce Cockburn (56)