[The Catholic religion] was something I carried with me, never forgot, brought into my music. And it's been in my music ever since.

In the early years, I found a voice that was my voice and also partly my father's voice. But isn't that what you always do? Why do kids at 5 years old go into the closet and put their daddy's shoes on? Hey, my kids do it.

The different social forces that affected my parents' lives or my friends' lives or I saw around me became essential for me to write about.

They wanted to know why I did what I did. Well, sir I guess there's just meanness in the world.

Your skin upon my skin, in the beating of our hearts, may the living let us in, before the dead tear us apart.

At the end of every hard day, people find some reason to believe.

My soul is lost, my friend, tell me how do I begin again? My city's in ruins, my city's in ruins.