I am proud of the hip hop generation. They are good business people and, actually, good people. It's strange that the only time the major press talks about them is when someone gets killed or does drugs or something; yet these are the same press people who made heroes out of the Mafia and other crooks, you know.

I think one of the nicest things that we created as a generation was just the fact that we could say, 'Hey, I don't like white people.'

The more you love someone the more he wants from you and the less you have to give since you've already given him your love.

There are things you stand up for because it’s right.

We just didn't put any pressure on each other, and I think that everybody needs somebody, and I didn't do it to try to do it; it's what we [with Nina Simone] were to each other.

Don't want to be near you for the thoughts we share but the words we never have to speak.

Writers ... I think ... live on that fine line between insanity and genius.