I always felt like there was a certain standard of music that I had to do from the beginning, even when I didn’t have the recognition that I have now.

What inspires me about rap is that it’s written in an almost poetic way. I just think it’s so cool.

Many a man’s strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he grows out of use.

A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in the experience.

I want to thank The Beatles for almost single-handedly getting me out of writer’s block.

Every one goes astray, but the least imprudent are they who repent the soonest.

My audience went, ‚Wait, why is she singing jazz? What’s going on?‘ And then they went, ‚Oh, because she can. Because she loves it.‘ And jazz, a music invented by the African-American community, is the greatest art form, I believe, to have ever come out of this country.

Man gives you the award but God gives you the reward.

I have to admit I’ve found myself doing the same things that a lot of other rock stars do or are forced to do. Which is not being able to respond to mail, not being able to keep up on current music, and I’m pretty much locked away a lot. The outside world is pretty foreign to me.

Music is a really great creative tool for me, for different roles.

I don’t know if I ever feel totally great about a record when I put it out. With every record that I put out, someone has literally got to come pry it from me because when I listen to my own music, I just hear flaws in it.

Sometimes I’m fascinated with how famous my work could be while I’m not so famous.

Cause I’m a musician, I’m not really good at posing and being a model, like, modeling.

I don’t ever want to come out with something safe and get away with, ‚It sounds good!‘ It’s got to be more than sounding good. The music I like are events.

Music in itself carries a whole set of messages which are very, very rich and complex, and the words either serve to exclude certain ones or point up certain others.

My father moved to Hawaii from Brooklyn and my mother came there as a child from the Philippines. They met at a show where my dad was playing percussion. My mom was a hula dancer.

It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.

It’s easy to make an album full of great songs. But I want people to go for the ride. The songs have to make sense together.

Years ago, when I first started being a big star, I had fans that were fanatical. It was when ‚Jolene‘ was a big hit.

I think that, whatever happens, I’m just happy I’ve written those songs and I’ve made an album. That’s really big for me, and I’m proud of that.

Ability will never catch up with the demand for it.

Environment is very important to me. Sometimes I have to perform during the day for festivals, and my music does not work in the daytime. It is nighttime music.

I just love working with Eminem. He’s just one of my favorite rappers, and his lyrics – he’s a true poet, and I enjoy that about him.

Music fills in for words a lot of the time when people don’t know what to say, and I think music can be more eloquent than words.

The Mind that lies fallow but a single Day, sprouts up in Follies that are only to be killed by a constant and assiduous Culture.

I don’t just listen to rap.

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.

We uploaded ‚Ocean Eyes‘ to SoundCloud, and it started getting a lot of plays pretty much immediately.

Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid.

You want to play another kind of character in another genre, and it’s been something I’ve been trying to do if I can in the career so far, and it’s something I hope to continue because it’s interesting to me and you get to do different things as an actor.

To remain a credible leader, I must always work first, hardest, and longest on changing myself. This is neither easy nor natural, but it is essential.

Your personal history is a part of what happens with your hands and your head as you play music.

I wanna thank MTV and the VMAs for choosing me to be a part of the show because, on this show, if you not an icon or upcomin‘ icon, you’re not on the show, you know?

I went through all the musicians in my life who I admire as bright, intelligent, virtuosic players.

On Saturday afternoons when all the things are done in the house and there’s no real work to be done, I play Bach and Chopin and turn it up real loudly and get a good bottle of chardonnay and sit out on my deck and look out at the garden.

Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.

I’m sure a lot of people out there make mistakes.

Some people focus more on sonics. Some people focus more on story. I focus on both sonics and story.

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.

With music, you often don’t have to translate it. It just affects you, and you don’t know why.

If boyhood and youth are but vanity, must it not be our ambition to become men?

Some people are making music just for numbers and views.

I grew up in a musical family; the majority of my growing up was done in Hawaii. It’s what we do. You sing, you dance, you play ukulele and you drink.

The investor of today does not profit from yesterday’s growth.

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.

When I got to New York City when I was 18, I started playing in clubs in Brooklyn – I have good friends and devoted fans on the underground scene, but we were playing for each other at that point – and that was it.

When art dresses in worn-out material it is most easily recognized as art.

I never said I was the best in anything. I never said I’m an icon. The world decides all of that.

Singing aloud leaves you with a sense of levity and contentedness.

I feel like in my music I can be a rebel. I can say things I wouldn’t say in real life.

I tried to give the world a bit of creativity, lyrics. And for me, I will always represent music from Puerto Rico, reggaeton, Latin music.

I can play a lot of different instruments adequately but nothing really well.

Hip-hop saved my life, man. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been even decent at. I don’t know how to do anything else.

Music is always a commentary on society.

Seeing much, suffering much, and studying much, are the three pillars of learning.

Music has the power to inspire the world.

Everyone my age probably grew up listening to the ‚perreos‘ of Plan B.

Occasionally, I hanker for the time when I sold more records, but I don’t sit and drool about it. When I do look at early footage of Talking Heads, I realise I was just a wreck.

I’m pretty sure I don’t have any songs that are about how much I love someone. They’re all either about, like, ‚I hate you,‘ or ‚You make me hate me.‘

Doo-wop is special music to me because it’s so straightforward and melody-driven and captures emotions.

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