If you sacrifice your art because of some woman, or some man, or for some color, or for some wealth, you can't be trusted.

If you make a suggestion and [musicians] don't know what you mean, you have to be able to do it yourself. I often sit down on drums and show 'em just exactly what I want. And I do it and then say, "How do you do that?" It's because I know how it looks, I know what I want to hear, and I don't drop or rush any tempo. It ain't in my body, it ain't in my nephew's body.

It took me twenty years study and practice to work up to what I wanted to play in this performance. How can she expect to listen five minutes and understand it?

You can tell whether a person plays well or not by the way he carries the instrument, whether it means something to him or not.

With "We Are The World," I can't even eat when I watch that on television. If I'm eatin' some food, I have to put it down. I feel very strongly about that.

Don't be afraid of mistakes - There are none.

They [police] do me like that all the time! "What you work for?".