You never have to choose between being the pure artist or the craven, sellout entertainer. You can be both.

To me, a performance is a military operation; it requires so much planning, and then ripping up the plan the minute you get there because you have no idea what the audience is feeling. I'm very much an entertainer, and sensitive to the audience's perception of me. I often have to do unexpected things, even for myself.

A lot of comedians today have misunderstood the concept of a subversive comedian. If you really want to be subversive, you have to please and offend in equal amounts.

Harmony is the third element of music, after melody and rhythm, and also the one which requires the most study to actually master. People can be very instinctive and extremely gifted melodically and rhythmically, and harmony can still be difficult.

You never have to choose between being the pure artist or the craven, sellout entertainer. You can be both.

Without the piano, I would never have attempted to rap, because I'm a poor rapper. I'm enthusiastic, but it takes me a long time to write eight bars of rap. I would battle any pianist, and yet I would forfeit happily before even getting into a rap battle with anyone.

Europeans invented art for the last 300 years, and the Americans kind of killed it with a big, huge rock.