I used to say to my auntie, 'You throw my fu*kin' poetry out, and you'll regret it when I'm famous,' and she threw the bast*rd stuff out. I never forgave her for not treating me like a fu*kin' genius or whatever I was when I was a child.

And so this is Xmas for black and for white, for yellow and red, let's stop all the fight.

What we’ve got to do is keep hope alive. Because without it we’ll sink.

As in a love affair, two creative people can destroy themselves trying to recapture that youthful spirit, at twenty-one or twenty-four, of creating without even being aware of how it's happening

You can't give a child too much love and if you love somebody, you can't be with them enough. There's no such thing.

What Can I Tell You about Myself which You Have Not Already Found Out from Those Who Do Not Lie?

I'm really very embarrassed about my guitar playing, in one way, because it's very poor. I can never move but I can make a guitar speak.