I just live my life and try to be present.

When I make music, I play it, I produce it, I write it. It's a very self-centered thing, not in a negative way. But I primarily work by myself, that's my process. When I'm acting, I'm there to serve the director and the character. I'm here to give you what you need. Communicate that to me and I will do what I need to do to get that. So that's what it's about.

My mother gave lots of good advice and had a lot to say. As you get older, you realize everything she said was true.

At first people thought I was really arrogant and a snob about music because I'm so intense about my production and sound, and because they knew I didn't like new music so much.

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.

God is love and if you are ready, he always is.

I think kids in Europe have developed a deeper knowledge of music and of black music in particular. You go to Europe, and these kids know about all this obscure funk and soul that kids over here wouldn't know. I think it's getting better in the States, though, with the age of the Internet.