Whatever you have to do to have a good time, let's get on with it, so long as it doesn't cause a murder.

Classical music is this music that was written by a bunch of dead people a long time ago.

Michael is Janet and Janet is Michael.

You don't think I work 14 hours a day right now?! I mean, I still put in the hours, I still do the work.

Basically I'm in the idea business -- whether it's a musical idea or a spoken idea ... If you wind up with a political system that wants to put idea men out of business, then you have worry on your hands.

. . . behind each breakaway movement is a breakaway demagogue who will set up his breakaway demagogue government.

The manner in which Americans ''consume'' music has a lot to do with leaving it on their coffee tables, or using it as wallpaper for their lifestyles, like the score of a movie --it's consumed that way without any regard for how and why it's made.