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

The key to longevity is to learn every aspect of music that you can.

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.

Doing a residency in any particular city requires a large repertoire to ensure repeat business.

When I started playing music, people weren't selling 5 million records. That was not the standard; that was not the focus.

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.

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.

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.

There's not a lot of pop music in the mainstream that makes you feel scared, that makes you wonder what's happening.

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

People say I'm wearing heels because I'm short. I wear heels because the women like 'em.

Music is real. It affects people; it's real.

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

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

What's missing from pop music is danger.

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.

The music industry is a matrix that is counter to what is natural and right.