The only way a drum machine will get out of beat is for you not to pay your electric bill.

Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent.

It's not the note you play that's the wrong note - it's the note you play afterwards that makes it right or wrong.

If somebody told me I only had an hour to live, I'd spend it choking a white man. I'd do it nice and slow.

It's not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change.

In music, silence is more important than sound.

I'm always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning... Every day I find something creative to do with my life.

Knowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery

Do not fear mistakes. There are none.

Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.

If you sacrifice your art because of some woman, or some man, or for some color, or for some wealth, you can't be trusted.

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.

Perception does not define who we are, but it does define where we are limited, and where we are not yet free.

Am I then more of an American than those who drew their first breath on American Ground?

Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.

Children know the truth: love is not an emotion, love is behavior.

You know, you can only cram your beliefs down a young kid's throat for so long before he goes, "you know, the other side seems to be having a lot more fun."

A vacation from school should not mean hunger for our children.

Give young people a chance, our generation may just surprise you.

In order to have the continued opportunity to express their "generosity" the oppressors must perpetuate injustice as well.

I really don't want to thank my wife because I could be bussing tables at the Daily Grill right now if not for her. Jesus, what a gig that'd be.