Art, music, and philosophy are merely poignant examples of what we might have been had not the priests and traders gotten hold of us.

If work is so terrific, how come they have to pay you to do it?

I became a radio nut. I loved the afternoon serials, and I got into jazz through the radio. I had a subscription to Down Beat when I was 12. And I'd spend a lot of time in front of the minor, miming records.

It's depressing to see blacks wanting to dive into the mainstream of American commercial life. They come from a magnificent African culture based on aesthetics, and they all want to become fort builders like the vicious people who originally enslaved them.

For a while, I thought of myself as an atheist until I realized it was a belief, too. It's a shame everything has to have a label.

No, there's no God, but there might be some sort of an organizing intelligence, and I think to understand it is way beyond our ability. It's certainly not a judgmental entity. It's certainly not paternalistic and all these qualities that have been attributed to God.

I always have these little internal monologues. You'll get used to them.