Lionel Richie told me forget about the critics. But if you come back with hit after hit, you don't have to worry about anything.

By 17, I had a whole band that would go in and play. It was called Spontaneous Inventions, after a Bobby McFerrin album.

I listen to all kinds of songs. There's something to be learned from every type of music and from the one making it, whether it's pop or jazz or hip-hop.

There's no substitute to being successful on an actual chart.

Every song that I've done is me in one way or another.

Being a musician, you want to be able to do the hardest stuff there is. People would think it's classical, but in classical, it's all on the page and the difficulty is keeping up with the music.

I watch my contemporaries, and they love to live in the studio and I don't. I have a life. I treat it as a 9-to-5. I try to create something new every day, and then I get on with my life.