A song is a song and a hit record can change a life.

I listen to all types of different music. I go to different festivals. I'm around music.

You're put in certain situations and it kind of opens up those doors and it opens up your eyes to realize what your true calling was.

Brandy is one of my favorite vocalists. Jay-Z is my favorite emcee outside of Biggie.

I really was kind of like a musical nerd. I would watch VH1's 'Behind The Music.' That was heavy when I was a kid. I would sit up and want to watch that all day instead of going outside sometimes.

When you're an artist, you can only do your own stuff. Even if you only write for other people, you're really more focused on yourself. So while everybody's out touring, I'm working on records.

There's a bunch of people who sit around and make excuses for themselves and get upset with artists, but you already know what this is - it's an ego-driven business.

I really want to work with Rufus Wainwright. Michael Stipe from R.E.M. I would love to work with Kanye West.

I don't believe in writing people off.

Not to be arrogant, but I have a lot of hits, so my phone stay ringing, but it's consistent.

It's a gift that I have and I became good at it. When I heard my first song I didn't even know that I could write songs.

If people are going to be allowed to say "we love you" and "I love you", they'd better have the backbone to prove it. Love isn't just a word.

Every socialist is a disguised dictator.

Art as far as it is able follows nature as a pupil imitates his master thus your art must be as it were God's grandchild.

Most of my favourite guitarists are self-taught, because in a way there's less of a reverence for the instrument itself, so you end up finding and inventing however you want to play it.

The drafts which true genius draws upon posterity, although they may not always be honored so soon as they are due, are sure to be paid with compound interest in the end.

Please don't set me free Death means a lot me

Love is a net that catches hearts like a fish

Kill the ones that eat us. Eat the ones we kill

If you desire to drain to the dregs the fullest cup of scorn and hatred that a fellow human being can pour out for you, let a young mother hear you call dear baby 'it.'

One's soldier should not abuse the enemy. 'Arouse a bee and it will come at you with the force of a dragon.