Growing up, I loved Bill Cosby.

I just want to say that dreams do come true. Don't ever give up on your dreams. Sometimes it just takes a little bit longer for some of us.

You have to give love to get love.

I've been influenced heavily by great soul artists. I see myself as a soul singer. I sing from my soul - I write from my soul.

I don't like labels, but I do have blue eyes and I'm soulful, so what am I going to do?

I write songs like "The Sweetest Love." Of course I'm a little cheesy. Love is cheesy. Love is corny. But it's also the greatest feeling in the whole world.

Some people go to college. For me I studied music my whole life. That was my college.

I really try to wake up with my music the same as I do with my life, and that is with no expectations. I just feel what I feel that day and follow it.

My songs don't play on pop radio; they play on black radio.

I was seven years old the first time I saw Michael Jackson. That changed everything.

I grew up in a Hollywood family with money, so money is not the reason I make music. I'm as Hollywood as it gets. Not internally but externally - that's my bloodline.

Waiting. Simply one person doing nothing, over time, while another approached.

My fascination with history is as much about the present as it is about the past.

Rewriting is the crucible where books are born.

People like you and I, though mortal of course like everyone else, do not grow old no matter how long we live.

He who is firm in will molds the world to himself. [Ger., Aber wer fest auf dem Sinne beharrt, der bildet die Welt sich.]

And then it was the kind of dark your eyes never adjust to.

When one is frank, one's very presence is a compliment.

It brings comfort to have companions in whatever happens.

I always give the example, if you turn on the radio today, black radio, Lenny Kravitz is not black. Bob Marley wasn't black: in the beginning, only white college stations played Bob Marley.

I'm not a hateful person and don't condone any kind of violence against others.