You're never promised your next breath.

Working with Gabby [Sidibe], I realized immediately that she was amazingly talented. I could tell just by the way she'd get into the role.

Tape machines are effects boxes as well because each tape machine has its own sound. You can over-load a tape machine or you can bump it a certain way so it compresses or makes a sound, tape saturation.

You need to open up so that more comes through. And you can just feel that when your ego is not in the way and when you're letting it be what it wants to be. You have to let it be what it wants to be as opposed to what you think it should be.

I'm not one of those artists who refuses to play their hits. I find that ridiculous. Hits are a blessing.

I never sit down to write or say, "Today, I have to record something." I wait to hear it and then I go for it.

It was amazing to me that, all of a sudden, I was hearing my music on the radio and coming out of cars.