Art is about building a new foundation, not just laying something on top of what's already there.

Technology is cool, but you've got to use it as opposed to letting it use you.

Music is music, ultimately. If it makes you feel good, cool.

Just sharing music with each other - that's cool. It's the selling that becomes the problem.

Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you.

When I first started out in this music industry, I was most concerned with freedom. Freedom to produce, freedom to play all the instruments on my records, freedom to say anything I wanted to.

From its conception and that one and only meeting, 'HITNRUN' took about 90 days to prepare its release. If that's what freedom feels like, 'HITNRUN' is what it sounds like.

It's fun being in Islamic countries, to know there's only one religion. There's order. You wear a burqa. There's no choice. People are happy with that.

Most people don't want to talk about politics and religion. They say, 'Let's talk about something else.'

You don't have to watch 'Gossip Girl' to have an attitude.

Every day I feel is a blessing from God. And I consider it a new beginning. Yeah, everything is beautiful.

I'm thankful enough or blessed enough to be able to say that Miles Davis was a friend when he was alive, and he was a wonderful mentor and really, really funny, you know.

I don't want anyone to fail, so if you can make money off music even though you can't sing or dance, that's genius.

My mother told me one day I walked in to her and said, 'Mom, I'm not going to be sick anymore,' and she said 'Why?' and I said 'Because an angel told me so.' Now, I don't remember saying it; that's just what she told me.

When you sit down to write something, there should be no guidelines. The main idea is not supposed to be, 'How many different ways can we sell it?' That's so far away from the true spirit of what music is.

What's missing from pop music is danger.

Young people have decided they like to listen to music in a certain way, through ear buds, and that's fine with me as long as it doesn't bother them that they're not hearing 90 percent of the music that way.

I always knew I had a relationship with God. But I wasn't sure God had a relationship with me.

Sometimes ideas are coming so fast that I have to stop doing one song to get another. But I don't forget the first one. If it works, it will always be there. It's like the truth: it will find you and lift you up. And if it ain't right, it will dissolve like sand on the beach.

It gets embarrassing to say something untrue because you put it online and everyone knows about it, so it's better to tell the truth.

No one can come and claim ownership of my work. I am the creator of it, and it lives within me.