Mama was my greatest teacher, a teacher of compassion, love and fearlessness. If love is sweet as a flower, then my mother is that sweet flower of love.

The truth is that we have to, as American citizens, stop thinking that this life that we're living, the things that we're dealing with, is some reality TV show. This is real life, real children, real situations.

Now some folks say that we should be glad for what we have. Tell me, would you be happy in Village Ghetto Land?

We all have ability. The difference is how we use it.

The most important thing is, when I do give the music, I'm satisfied with it, that it speaks for what I want to do.

I remember the beginnings of the Kurzweil reading machine. I was one of the first to meet Ray Kurzweil and purchase the reading machine in Boston. To think that the machine was at least two and a half large suitcases at the time, and now you have a camera and it takes a picture and you have sound.

Families buying dog food now, starvation roams the streets. Babies die before their born, infected by the grief.