I'd rather be a free man in my grave than living as a puppet or a slave.

My role is the shepherd's role. The shepherd is the one who opens the gate and allows the flock to go through and whoever opens the gate has to close it, and the gate is not yet closed.

I live between Jamaica and Paris.

I was a songwriter and I've written some good songs, but there are lots of greater songs that I know I have inside yet to come out.

I am not one of those artists who is cemented in one way. I am able to, you know, make the happy, jovial, lighthearted music too. We need that in life too. So it's like that to me.

I write songs on a universal basis. I was born out of the earth of Jamaica which I consider to be a part of Atlantis, the sunk continent, but that's my thing. But I write songs on a universal basis, not like Jamaican songs.

People might say, 'Jimmy Cliff, you've done a lot, achieved a lot. What more can you want?