My concerns have been about myself and not about giving something back and putting something in, even though that's been in the back of my head.

I can take any series of numbers and turn it into music, from Bach to bebop, Herbie Hancock to hip-hop.

I don't follow what everybody else does.

I'm creative; I'm not re-creative.

Here in Seattle, I'm the most productive I've ever been. I don't allow myself personal distractions. I'm extremely disciplined here.

My work sometimes can be abstract and appear not to have a direct relationship to Afro-American concerns, but, in fact, it is based on that.

Then it hit me and I just blurted, 'I like people too much or not at all. I've got to go down deep, to fall into people, to really know them.

Those that see too much quickly find themselves seeing nothing at all.

The problem with the world is that everyone does not have a brain, but everyone does have a tongue.

The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.

Film is a time capsule. If I have a lack of dedication or focus, it's permanently there as a negative reminder.

You cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up up them.

I love to dream, but I never try to dream and think at the same time.

In the last resort, a love of God without love of humanity is no love at all.

All men are liars, said Roberta Muldoon, who knew this was true because she had once been a man.

There's a fine line between playing with fear and then taking bad plays and playing with no fear.