When people say I don't see you enough, well just because you don't see me don't mean I don't exist or just 'cause you haven't heard me don't mean I haven't been making noise. But if I keep making noise, you'll pick up.

What I take from writers I like is their economy - the ability to use language to very effective ends.

I know what it feels like to have the door slammed firmly in my face, so I'm cool with that.

They say that when a man faces his destiny, the destiny ends and he becomes the man that he really is.

It's possible and available to any artist to be himself or herself on their own terms, to be accepted and embraced by black people. You don't have to be a thug to get love from black people.

I'm doing exactly what I was supposed to do. Yeah. I didn't exactly choose this. My own life, if it were up to me, would be very, very quiet. I'd be like a shopkeeper, a book collector, or something like that. I'm not like this. Myself as a performer and an artist is totally different from who I am.

I feel like being into the beat of your own drum has become too prominent in the culture.