[Prince] could very well be the Duke Ellington of Rock 'n' Roll.

I said to [Lionel] Richie, "Man, my wife says you must really respect women because you write such beautiful love songs."

...people will go for anything they don't understand if it's got enough hype. They want to be hip, want always to be in on the new thing so they don't look unhip. White people are especially like that, particularly when a black person is doing something they don't understand...That's what I thought was happening when Ornette hit town.

Maybe you play a melody twice. You play it once like you like it, and some parts that you don't like you can just switch. An eight-bar motive - you can just take it and put it in the front or back or something like that. It can save you 50 or 60 or 70,000 dollars, a drum machine. That's why everybody uses it.

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.

Food makes my mind sluggish.

I don't wanna talk about Teo [Macero]. He's a helluva musician, a brilliant musician, but he's just not for me, that's all. I can elaborate on it, but I don't want to do that.