For me, jazz will always be the soundtrack of the civil rights movement.

I want a soul mate who can sit me down, shut me up, tell me ten things I don't already know, and make me laugh. I don't care what you look like, just turn me on.

When you start to doubt yourself the real world will eat you alive.

There is no way you are going to be forgiven for blowing up a village and killing a bunch of people.

I beg young people to travel. If you don't have a passport, get one. Take a summer, get a backpack and go to Delhi, go to Saigon, go to Bangkok, go to Kenya. Have your mind blown. Eat interesting food. Dig some interesting people. Have an adventure. Be careful. Come back and you're going to see your country differently, you're going to see your president differently, no matter who it is. Music, culture, food, water. Your showers will become shorter. You're going to get a sense of what globalization looks like.

The opportunity to write for the 'L.A. Weekly' has been one of the better breaks that has come my way in a long time.

Rock n' roll unchained a nation and revolutionized radio and the record industry, not to mention the motion picture business.