My life is perfect because I accept it as it is.

Race in this country is still the elephant in the room that no one wants to discuss.

If you listen to a lot of old funk records, the drums are really small. But you don't perceive it like that because the groove is so heavy.

I don't think about the styles. I write whatever comes out and I use whatever kind of instrumentation works for those songs.

I'm just as white as I am black, and I'm just as Russian Jew as I am West Indian.

I've woken up from dreams and the whole song is there. I'm listening to it in my dreams. I consciously have to wake myself up and get a tape recorder because I hear it like a record.

Confusion makes people uncomfortable. They can't put their finger on me.