I wish I could make music about politics. I feel like it’s such an art and a talent that I admire tremendously, but when I step into the studio, I step out of the real world, and it’s therapeutic.

‚Wrecking Ball‘ is a great song.

If people continue to feel like Democrats are looking after poor folks and Republicans are looking after rich folks and nobody is looking after me, then we don’t get a lot of stuff done. And the trend lines evidence the fact that folks have gotten squeezed. And obviously, 2007, 2008 really ripped open for people how vulnerable they were.

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

John F. Kennedy was the victim of the hate that was a part of our country. It is a disease that occupies the minds of the few but brings danger to the many.

There is a group of people that I think in good faith honestly believe that further curtailing our Second Amendment rights will enhance public safety. But there’s another group that just hates the Second Amendment.

I was doing sold-out shows before I got radio play.

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.

In my studio, it is unkempt and unattractive. Once I’m in my work, I don’t notice where I am.

Even if my songs are quite sad or quite dark, I don’t want my songs to make people sad. It’s very important for me that all my songs have some kind of hope or light.

Anywhere in Latin America there is a potential threat of the pathology of caudillismo and it has to be guarded against.

It is my absolute belief that Indians have unlimited talent. I have no doubt about our capabilities.

A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians.

Art is man’s expression of his joy in labor.

Obviously, I’m no fan of the radical left.

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.

If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together.

Metal, I love metal sounds. If I have a stick with me, I just drag it across a fence. And all fences make different sounds, just like people when they laugh.

By most accounts, Aristide is the most popular figure in Haiti.

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

All government, of course, is against liberty.

In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?

I think any activity you have your kids in, you’re all trying to live vicariously through them. And you’re jealous of the kid that’s naturally more talented or has the facility, the body, the genes, or the God-given talent. People get jealous of that.

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

I have been a firm believer in the federal structure of our country as enshrined in the Constitution.

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.

They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus, that means guns, sex, lies, video tapes, but if I talk about God my record won’t get played Huh?

I met India Arie, who is one of my favorite artists of all time. It was really sweet; I was broken up with a month before, and she stayed up texting me all night and was helping me through it. Her text message looks like a song of hers. She’s sort of become my fairy godmother.

The truth of it is that every singer out there with songs on the radio is raising the next generation, so make your words count.

I always use the same guitar; I got this guitar years and years ago for nine pounds. It’s still got the same strings on it.

I took the Canal Zone and let Congress debate; and while the debate goes on, the canal does also.

Music is well said to be the speech of angels.

‚House of Balloons‘ was special because I had no deadlines, and nobody knew me, so there were no expectations. Spent a year making it perfect. Every song had at least, like, 7 different versions to them before picking the right one.

The prospect of music being detachable from time and place meant that one could start to think of music as a part of one’s furniture.

Basically, I live to do gigs.

When I look back on what I did for the Left, I’m in a small way quite proud of some of it – I only wish I’d done more.

It’s a privilege to serve the poor, to be servants of noble Africans, but I better belong in the rehearsal room or in the studio with my band. That’s where I want to be and I still wake up in the morning with melodies in my head.

I am making a collection of the things my opponents have found me to be and, when this election is over, I am going to open a museum and put them on display.

I’m the king of the anthems.

Politics is like football; if you see daylight, go through the hole.

Nothing feels better than going onstage and everybody is singing every word – and actually wanting to see you.

Being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to our friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much as I expected.

I’ve made sure that in any situation and with any record label, I’m allowed to write my own music.

Honestly, I’d love to be remembered as one of the best to ever pick up a mic, but if I’m doing my part to lessen some racial tension I feel good about what I’m doing.

Irrespective of whether you have talent or not, one has to work hard. Just being talented doesn’t mean anything; you can end up wasting it before you realize.

I neither will aspire to nor will I accept, the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief.

In a time of domestic crisis, men of goodwill and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics.

I admire Ralph Nader and Denis Kucinich very much, and insofar as they bring up issues and carry out an educational and organisational function – that’s important, and fine, and I support it.

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.

My dad was into the 1950s doo-wop era. If you look at those groups, or at James Brown, Jackie Wilson and the Temptations in the 1960s, you’ll see you had to be sharp onstage.

One of my big fears is people saying my songs are all starting to sound the same.

I didn’t live at school, I lived where I could and studied what I enjoyed studying. I took what I wanted from that education but was making my first record at the same time. I don’t know anyone from school. I was just leading a different life. I was really interested in writing and other things.

My dad was very intelligent, had a very strong personality. I was amazed with my father.

I guess you could say it’s always been my destiny to be a performer.

I wouldn’t call myself a synaesthete in the sense that Nabokov was. But I’ll talk about a sound as being cold blue or dark brown. For descriptive purposes, yes, I often see colors when I’m listening to music and think, ‚Oh, there’s not enough sort of yellowy stuff in here, or not enough white.‘

If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldn’t be here. It’d still be waiting for an environmental impact statement.

I don’t follow politics much.

We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.

I don’t profess to have music as my big wheel and there are a number of other things as important to me apart from music. Theatre and mime, for instance.