I think music is one of the hero/sheroes of the African-American existence.

I like being able to be on the inside of music, rather than on the outside listening to it.

In a certain way, it’s the sound of the words, the inflection and the way the song is sung and the way it fits the melody and the way the syllables are on the tongue that has as much of the meaning as the actual, literal words.

I hate the idea of genres.

There’s been people who’ve rapped and produced – like Kanye – but I don’t feel like on the rapping side there’s ever been a producer who can rap as good as I think I can rap.

Lyrics are always misleading because they make people think that that’s what the music is about.

You know, my sister sings, my brother plays drums in my band. My whole family is a bunch of musicians.

It is a mania shared by philosophers of all ages to deny what exists and to explain what does not exist.

Don’t think you are going to conceal thoughts by concealing evidence that they ever existed.

Many people are alive but don’t touch the miracle of being alive.

After your death you will be what you were before your birth.

Real life? Well, I just hope mine isn’t investigated. They might find that I don’t really exist – that I’m just a hologram.

Man is an exception, whatever else he is. If he is not the image of God, then he is a disease of the dust. If it is not true that a divine being fell, then we can only say that one of the animals went entirely off its head.

I existed from all eternity and, behold, I am here; and I shall exist till the end of time, for my being has no end.

Doing music to pay bills is an uncomfortable situation. I never wanted to be in that situation.

There, in the chords and melodies, is everything I want to say. The words just jolly it along. It’s always been my way of expressing what, for me, is inexpressible by any other means.

We need to try to unite audiences, unite countries, join musical tastes, unite people.

Music has the power to inspire the world.

I love movement. I love moshing.

Getting a great idea with song writing is a lot like love. You don’t know why this one is different, but it is. You don’t know why this one is better, but it is. It sticks in your head, and you can’t stop thinking about it.

I just wanted to be a composer; I became an actor by default, really. I got a scholarship to a college of music and drama, hoping to take a scholarship in music. But I ended up as an acting student, so I’ve stuck with that for the last 50-odd years.

Whenever I write a novel, music just sort of naturally slips in (much like cats do, I suppose).

Mariah and Whitney Houston were my goddesses growing up.

The instrument that I never learned how to play was my fans. You know, they are the part of the story that nobody teaches you. I just want to do the right thing; I want to be a voice with them, among them.

Songs are my diaries; they always have been. You have to put your trust in everyone because putting down those real, personal details and thoughts that make a song authentic also opens you right up. I am constantly misunderstood; a lot of people just don’t get me.

I do seem to like to combine the dramatic emotional warmth of strings with the grooves and body business of drums and bass.

I learned how important it is to entertain people and give them a reason to come and watch you play.

If music be the food of love, play on.

My mother is a singer, my sisters all sing, my uncles are incredible singers and guitar players, so it’s just kind of been like my habitat.

What I’ve discovered is that in art, as in music, there’s a lot of truth-and then there’s a lie. The artist is essentially creating his work to make this lie a truth, but he slides it in amongst all the others. The tiny little lie is the moment I live for, my moment. It’s the moment that the audience falls in love.

In the usual progress of things, the necessities of a nation in every stage of its existence will be found at least equal to its resources.

But when I hear a great song, I can’t help but be inspired by it, regardless of whatever genre that song falls under.

In the 1960s, people were trying to get away from the pop song format. Tracks were getting longer, or much, much shorter.

Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.

If I heard someone else singing like me, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

‚House of Balloons‘ was actually supposed to have more songs than it does.

If you talk bad about country music, it’s like saying bad things about my momma. Them’s fightin‘ words.

Unbeing dead isn’t being alive.

Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance.

I’m not a supermodel. That’s not what I do. What I do is music. I want my fans to feel the way I do, to know what they have to offer is just as important, more important, than what’s happening on the outside.

I’ve rarely seen video screens used well in a music concert.

My songwriting is like extending a hand to the listener.

I think I can keep a rhythm to a beat, but there are quite a few people who would argue with me.

I’ve always felt music is the only way to give an instantaneous moment the feel of slow motion. To romanticise it and glorify it and give it a soundtrack and a rhythm.

All my momma’s people were very musical. My grandpa, who was the Pentecostal minister, he was a great musician. He played the fiddle, he played the piano.

Having listened to great songwriters like James Taylor and Carole King, I felt there was nothing new that was coming out that really represented me and the way I felt. So I started writing my own stuff.

It has been discovered that all the world is made of the same atoms, that the stars are of the same stuff as ourselves. It then becomes a question of where our stuff came from. Not just where did life come from, or where did the earth come from, but where did the stuff of life and of the earth come from?

When it comes down to it, glam rock was all very amusing. At the time, it was funny, then a few years later it became sort of serious-looking and a bit foreboding.

Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.

You listen to the radio and all the songs sound the same, from 8 in the morning to 12.

Everyone I look up to is bringing me into the tech world. You’d be surprised by all the music people in it, invested in it.

I’m a huge fan of R. Kelly’s. He’s a musical genius and probably the most prolific artist of the generation before mine.

However, there’s no theme or concept behind Heathen, just a number of songs but somehow there is a thread that runs through it that is quite as strong as any of my thematic type albums.

I just know that I’m a fan of all different kinds of genres. You’re supposed to be free doing music, and that’s how I feel.

I really am a fan of Ye’s music.

My music is influenced by L.A. culture.

Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.

Between us and heaven or hell there is only life, which is the frailest thing in the world.

I know a lot of people who wouldn’t be comfortable with everything that comes with being in a band as big as Nirvana. The thing that I don’t understand is not appreciating that simple gift of being able to play music.

Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder.

It’s always great to perform at home in the good ol‘ U.S.A.