In blues music, there's a lot of borrowing, so it's often difficult to identify the originator of a song.

I have to keep moving I don't want to think I'm going to work all day today I don't want to stop Don't want to let my brain catch up my thoughts How will I be able to tell them that I'm a shadow A grey patch of cold rotting life

The prison-industrial complex and the military-industrial complex are here with us and are multi-billion dollar enterprises. We can make more money off the kid in Compton if he's a criminal instead of a scholar. It's business.

I like the idea of someone else’s love safely sealed in a song or a book.

Life forgets me but will not let me forget Holds me down and tells me that I'm free.

Don't do anything by half. If you love someone, love them with all your soul.

My mother taught me how to read very early on and at school I was ahead of everyone in class... Reading was always something that I liked because I could do it alone and I was alone a lot of the time with my mother working the hours she did. Books became my friends very early on.