I'm very appreciative of, and I also, having traveled the world, know that the United States is one of the few places where there really are no limitations. As long as you've got drive and hard work and a good idea and you can get out there and do your thing, there's no social classes, so in a lot of countries there's a big history of regardless of how much money you may make, there's still that little thing where you're not in society. That doesn't exist here.

The challenge is always as a writer, is this going to work, because it's a very intimate process, and I tend to be very introverted and insular, and when I write, it's in my head.

I hold 'Mi Tierra,' my first Spanish-language album, very close to me because that was all done in my native tongue and won me my first Grammy.

The sad truth is that opportunity doesn't knock twice. You can put things off until tomorrow but tomorrow may never come. Where will you be a few years down the line. Will it be everything you dreamed of. We seal our fate with the choices we take, but don't give a second thought to the chances we take.

My inspirations include the Beatles - love, love, love them - Elton John, Carole King, and Stevie Wonder.

Well first of all, I'm a singer. I sing since I talk. So the great ballad singers, the people that sang with so much feeling, jazz, blues, all those singers, they were songs that I listened to, records that my mom played for me, and then later I bought.

I think that the only way to teach is by example, as children will more easily follow what they see you do than what you tell them to do.