I was born at a very crucial time. I consider 1968 to be the Mason Dixon line between pre- and post-civil rights generation ideas, whereas a lot of people born before '68 they kind of went into that Moses mentality. Like, I'm not going to make it, you know, I don't have any hope.

It's a funny word, persistence. It means not giving up, but it also means just passing on through time.

I never want to get to that level of poverty where taking a bath has to be a hot-pot experience.

Classical music requires an immense amount of concentration, and I don't know if I would've been that committed to that particular life.

What I'm slowly realizing is that I believe that most of us felt that we could relax a little bit after November 2, 2008, because of the progress and the spirit that it took to get Barack Obama in The White House. And what we didn't realize, is that was really the beginning. That was really the beginning of the struggle and not the end of a struggle, to come from colonial times through slavery, through the Jim Crowe Laws, through the civil rights period to The White House as, like a point A/point B journey. Point B of course being the end.

It's easy for me to say, "Oh yeah, that's the self-saboteur move that most artists pull whenever they're afraid."

I do secret stand-up shows around New York. I announce and tweet this to nobody - I get onstage and I do a quick five minutes.