Just because I'm a recording artist doesn't mean I'm not an artist. Because I had to grow.

What I like is not a particular genre, it's storytelling. There's a lot of great storytelling in jazz, and in folk and in country music.

I've followed my voice rather than forcing it to emerge.

If I can make something real and it's appreciated and accessible to other people, I'm happy.

People are a lot more open than even they think they are. And I feel like I carry a heavy story about where I come from and those roots, but also what I like as a thinker.

I just want something that is real and that moves people. And just want to make something real.

I'm not angry. I can't sing that loud for that long anyway, I'll start coughing - I don't have the instrument for it. I don't feel that emotional. I'm at peace.

For the hand of a beauty with honest words and sensibilities so mighty.“Though your mother and father had hoped for something more fragile (and flighty),

I thank Thee that many of my prayers have been refused... I have longed for Egypt and have been given a wilderness.

The hate which we all bear with the most Christian patience is the hate of those who envy us.

Don't be indecisive and unstable in all your ways. Rather, walk in the strength, confidence, and boldness that come from decisive action.

Some call it schizophrenia, I call it a career

So that we may not be like the Athenians, who never consulted except after the event done. [Fr., Afin que ne semblons es Athenians, qui ne consultoient jamais sinon apres le cas faict.]

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is a hallucinating idiot...for he sees what no one else does: things that, to everyone else, are not there.

How few of his friends' houses would a man choose to be at when he is sick.

don't sabotage your own greatness by succumbing to failure!

For if God be on our side, what matter maketh it who be against us, be they bishops, cardinals, popes, or whatsoever names they will?