A great song can make a terrible singer sound good, but a good singer - you put a great song on top of that, you're really in great shape!

Every day you must be able to say, I have to get up because I'm needed by someone. As long as you have that, you're healthy.

I was married for 36 years but now I'm free.

Music in movies is all about dissonance and consonance, tension and release.

I guess hip-hop has been closer to the pulse of the streets than any music we've had in a long time. It's sociology as well as music, which is in keeping with the tradition of black music in America.

My brother died of cancer two years ago (1998), renal cell carcinoma. He was my only real brother and I didn't know what to do. I'd never been so desperate in my life.

The people who make it to the top - whether they're musicians, or great chefs, or corporate honchos - are addicted to their calling ... [they] are the ones who'd be doing whatever it is they love, even if they weren't being paid.