I'm not into the money thing. You can only sleep in one bed at a time. You can only eat one meal at a time, or be in one car at a time. So I don't have to have millions of dollars to be happy. All I need are clothes on my back, a decent meal, and a little loving when I feel like it. That's the bottom line.

The fact of the matter is, you don't give up what's natural. Anything I've fantasized about, I've done.

There's such a thing as too much happiness and sadness. What I'm after is contentment.

[On his heroin addiction:] I did it to myself. It wasn't society...it wasn't a pusher, it wasn't being blind or being black or being poor. It was all my doing.

I was born with music inside me

Sometimes my dreams are so deep that I dream that I'm dreaming.

Music to me is like breathing. I don't get tired of breathing, I don't get tired of music.