I don't have to really be in the 60s. Every time I hail a cab in New York, and they pass me by and pick up the white person, then I get a dose of it. Or when they don't want to take you to Harlem. I grew up with that.

If you're prematurely born or if you have things happening when you're like a baby being born. If you have to learn how to walk right or if there's something wrong with your gait or just physical things that are happening. Illnesses affect your family and they impact you because you want to do the best you can to help your family member become more healthy.

I'm thinking wanting to succeed is something in my DNA; I'm not like 'I've got to succeed,' I just don't think about that... I see a silver lining in everything and I see a lesson in everything.

I don't have any regrets. If I could have talked to my 19- or 20-year-old self, I would have said, 'You're going to be fine. It ain't that serious!'

Racism is ignorant. And it's stupid. And it's old. And it's played out. So beat it already with that, you know what I mean? 'Let's all get along' - I'm so tired of that damn sentence, but it's true.

I try to only commit myself to things that I think I can accomplish and commit myself to 100 percent. I try not to bite off more than I can chew.

The more you push the budgets up, the more you make records cost $20, the more you make records last 4 and 5 minutes on the radio.