You want your parents to say, "Hey, I'm proud of you." When you don't hear that, you learn to compensate. You say, "Hell, I don't need their approval. If I get my music right, I'll have everyone else's approval." I didn't understand it then, but I now know that's what happened to me.

I don't remember feeling love.

All the jazz guys had interracial relationships, and even the ladies did. Over the years, interracial relationships have been a hip, almost defiant thing, a way of saying "Nobody can put a boundary around me."

A song should have all the color and beauty of every rose.

When you're over the hill, that's when you pick up speed.

My son is a hip-hop producer.

The act of multitrack recording is the act of arranging.