When I say nothing, I say everything

Playing drums feels like coming home for me. Even during the White Stripes I thought: 'I'll do this for now, but I'm really a drummer.' That's what I'll put on my passport application.

There aren't that many things left that haven't already been done, especially with music. I'm interested in ideas that can shake us all up.

Maybe we should all just listen to records and quit our jobs

Well, I sort of don't trust anybody who doesn't like Led Zeppelin.

Failure comes when we don't get back up and try again.

The Eagle does not escape the storm. The Eagle simply uses the storm to lift it higher. It spreads its mighty wings and rises on the winds that bring the storm.

I think that sometimes love gets in the way of itself - you know, love interrupts itself. We want things so much that we sabotage them.

I won't let love disrupt, corrupt, or interrupt me.

Many days you will want to give up because of rejections and failures. Passion to be an artist will help you prevail where others fail.

It is the pursuit of happiness that brings us happiness, and not the happiness achieved.

Mistakes are not bad

Create always: As God has seen fit in His perfection to give you such abilities, work and share of your gifts.

Often I didn’t think I was cut out for the way the world is, being born into a common culture and system I would never choose for myself.

Friendship is like flowers

The challenges African-Americans are facing today are rooted in the system of slavery.

I've never done anything but dream. This, and this alone, has been the meaning of my life. My only real concern has been my inner life.

Despite what people think, I was such a rule follower at school. I loved the whole slacker look, like, 'Hey, I don't care, whatever,' but if I didn't turn my homework in, I would panic.

The wonderful thing about books is you never run out of them, you can just keep going. So I'm always finding new writers, or old writers that I just happen not to have read.

Of course not. You can't have a family hanging over you like a bunch of old dead goats. No offense.

Originality irritates so obscurely that people may have to evolve to scratch it.