Culture in America and everywhere else comes from the suffering, from those who don't want the old ways. They want to bring in the new, whether it's the ballet, when it started, or Shakespeare.

I've been thinking a lot about gay marriage. I'm a big supporter.

People will always blame the poets for society's ills. But these are the true artists.

The poets who do this are uniquely conscious of this silence, this stillness.

I want to do and I'm giving all the profits to charity, is to teach people to meditate. All it takes is a little bit of patience.

America, you know, they always separate people because of race. They've been able to convince, 'The niggers are coming.' You know, the diversity that America has is so special. It's starting to really become a cool thing for young people. Not only because there are more mixes of people, but because people are more open-minded about each other. So I think in the future, America has a great, great opportunity, and mostly because of hip-hop.

I signed Jay-Z because he was on fire. I wasn't a genius. The record was great. I put it on The Nutty Professor soundtrack and we signed him.