To accept whatever comes, regardless of the consequences, is to be unafraid.

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.

There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot.

Everything you do is music, and everywhere is the best seat.

The act of listening is in fact an act of composing.

The world is no longer a romantic place; some of its people still are however, and therein lies the promise. Don't let the world win.

It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else.

If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.

I have nothing to say, and I am saying it.

Good music can act as a guide to good living.

Look at everything. Don't close your eyes to the world around you. Look and become curious and interested in what there is to see.

Pain has a threshold and so does death.

Thus, in a real sense, I am constantly writing autobiography, but I have to turn it into fiction in order to give it credibility.

I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.

The demand for justice always exceeds the supply.

The existence of the EPA regulation will require large carbon polluters to look at their hole cards, and some of them have decided that they much prefer legislation.

I've lived the American Dream, but, sadly, for too many, the American Dream is fading.

There are people who study germs. I believe they are called Germans

Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs, have played an important role in enriching the lives of not just African Americans, but our entire country.

We are all facing the end one day or another. I say, live a good and prosperous life, make sure your choices count, make them count.

Get through today – you can fall apart tomorrow. Get through tomorrow, you can fall apart the day after . . .