I’ve always looked for the perfect life to step into.

When everyone goes home, you’re stuck with yourself.

I think anybody with any intelligence sits down and sees Star Trek not a kids’ show.

It is my job to make sure that these kids who are talented get every chance they can and not to be passed over; this is life or death for them.

I wasn’t afraid of going places or doing new things. I would do just about anything or go anywhere. I’d get a notion in my mind and just follow it.

It’s nice to be able to backtrack and not be embarrassed by the music you used to listen to.

My mother was really into big band. It was played in the house all the time.

Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real.

I don’t see myself being special; I just see myself having more responsibilities than the next man. People look to me to do things for them, to have answers.

I’m not about trying to be out here fighting and shooting, stabbing and, you know, all that crap, man.

Adversities such as being homeless and going to prison has made many people stronger.

It’s easy to get four days a week of training in and I don’t spend more than 55-60 minutes in the gym.

Historically, I believe I was correct in refusing to answer their questions.

But I don’t really like to discuss Phil anymore.

People know who you are when you’ve never met them. For them, through interviews and seeing you perform, they feel like they know you and you’ve never seen them before. It’s really different, but it’s...

I met Mos Def around that time but I didn’t hook up with him until I was about 17 or 18.

Later in the public schools of Philadelphia, where I was born, music was a very strong pervasive element, which struck me with great force.

After reaching 50, I began to wonder what the root of life is.

That’s why for Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society the colors are black and white. There are no gray issues. Life is black and it’s white. There’s no in-between.

I began to work the stage and get the audience into it. I also learned how to have fun out there. It is something I will never forget.

I listened to classical guitar and Spanish guitar, as well as jazz guitar players, rock and roll and blues. All of it. I did the same thing with my voice.

I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I’ll die like a poet.

Don’t matter how much money you got, there’s only two kinds of people: there’s saved people and there’s lost people.

I got to meet some of the best people I’ve ever met, and we all grew as people and as entertainers.

I started writing when I was about fourteen, but when I was about sixteen you know, I heard Outkast, that was pretty much when I was sold on it.

I am who I am, I am what I am, I do what I do and I ain’t never gonna do it any different. I don’t care who likes it and who don’t.

Well, I never really practiced because I never had the opportunity to practice.

One of the biggest things I understood in a program like that was that it allowed more young African American scholars to do field research in the Caribbean and in Africa than had ever happened...

Country radio certainly widens the boundaries of what I can do. Other artists may do something more edgy that gets on radio and that opens the door for me to be more edgy, I think.

Today the kids that are out now they make a hit record and they put them right out on the stage with 10,000 people out there and they don’t know anything about the business yet.

Strats are my favorite electric guitars, and I’ve got quite a collection.

A song must move the story ahead. A song must take the place of dialogue. If a song halts the show, pushes it back, stalls it, the audience won’t buy it; they’ll be unhappy.

I don’t imagine my parents are too excited about my kind of life. The surrounding weirdness bothers them. Still, I think they’re pretty good. Their lives are based on what their friends think, just like...

So what I’m trying to say is from a musical aspect for anybody to say that whatever they’re doing in Florida is not Hip Hop or whatever they’re doing in LA is not Hip Hop,...

All I ever wanted to do was write songs and get on a bus and go play them for people.

I don’t have to say ‘Rap it up’ every two seconds, or ‘Don’t do drugs’ every two seconds. They know they’re not supposed to use drugs, and they know they’re supposed to put a condom...

I have no use for bodyguards, but I have very specific use for two highly trained certified public accountants.

I’m strictly for Stevenson. I don’t dig the intellectual bit, but I’m telling you, man, he knows the most.

I think that celebrities should never underestimate their power. I mean just to draw attention, because then people get involved on a personal level.

We all have a responsibility, and since I’ve been so wonderfully blessed, I really want to share and to make life at least a little better. So every chance I get to share the gospel...

On becoming more acquainted with the word of the Bible, I began to understand so much more of what I had been taught, and of what I had learned about life and about the people...

I’m developing artists for my new record label, my son’s band, Intangible, being one of them.

If I told you the tragedy parts, we’d all sit here and cry.

Sometimes you get real close, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes they drive you crazy. I think every composer does that. That’s a big part of the job.

Well, we didn’t have our original drummer on our last record. And most of that album was not played as a band in the studio. It was mostly the world of computers and overdubs. There...

Daddy was real gentle with kids. That’s why I expected so much out of marriage, figuring that all men should be steady and pleasant.

In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent.

You try to avoid the mistakes you made in the past.

Frank was the BOSS and was not open to anything that was not from his head. There were no arguments about music because if you did, he would show you where the door was. Period.

I haven’t seen or spoken to Ray Collins in at least 10 years so I don’t even know if he’s alive. I hope so.