Rock's so good to me. Rock is my child and my grandfather.

It's amazing how much you can learn if your intentions are truly earnest.

Don't let the same dog bite you twice.

Rock's so good to me. Rock is my child and my grandfather.

A contract is an ask game, and if it asks for an hour, and I submit to an hour, then it's an hour. When I look at a contract, I look at the obligation - where, when, how long, the compensation. If I agree to it, that's the way it is. I have an obligation. They have an obligation.

A song is a song. But there are some songs, ah, some songs are the greatest. The Beatles song 'Yesterday.' Listen to the lyrics.

Charlie Christian played amplified guitar with Benny Goodman's quartet. He was the greatest guitar player that ever was. But he never looked up from the guitar. But I put a little dance to it. They appreciate seein' something along with hearin' something.

I grew up thinking art was pictures until I got into music and found I was an artist and didn't paint.

I love poetry. I love rhyming. Do you know, there are poets who don't rhyme? Shakespeare did not rhyme most of the time, and that's why I do not like him.

I would sing the blues if I had the blues.

If the people in the audience are talking, you're being ignored. If the people are gazing at you, you've got something they want to hear.

In a way, I feel it might be ill-mannered to try and top myself. The music I play is a ritual. Something that matters to people in a special way. I wouldn't want to interfere with that.

It amazes me when I hear people say, 'I want to go out and find out who I am.' I always knew who I was. I was going to be famous if it killed me.

My dad was the cause of me being in show business. He was not only in poetry but in acting a bit. He was Mordecai in the play 'A Dream of Queen Esther.'

My music is simple stuff. Anybody can sit down, look at a set of symbols and produce sounds the music represents.

My singing days have passed. My voice is gone. My throat is worn. And my lungs are going fast.

Of the five most important things in life, health is first, education or knowledge is second, and wealth is third. I forget the other two.

Praise doesn't mean anything to me. I don't judge myself.

Rock 'n' roll accepted me and paid me, even though I loved the big bands... I went that way because I wanted a home of my own. I had a family. I had to raise them. Let's don't leave out the economics. No way.

Science and religion are both the same thing. They're there; they're life. If it's not science, it's not a fact.

That's all there was in our house: poetry and choir rehearsal and duets and so forth; I listened to Dad and Mother discuss things about poetry and delivery and voice and diction - I don't think anyone could know how much it really means.

That's the misconceptions that people have, that Chuck Berry went to jail. They're just totally wrong. It might have said something in the large papers in the bigger city headlines and things. But, you take a look at any of the local papers, and you will see that I was acquitted. I never went to jail.

The Big Band Era is my era. People say, 'Where did you get your style from?' I did the Big Band Era on guitar. That's the best way I could explain it.

The music played most around St. Louis was country-western and swing. Curiosity provoked me to lay a lot of the country stuff on our predominantly black audience. After they laughed at me a few times, they began requesting the hillbilly stuff.

You don't just go to the studio and say, 'I'm going to write a hit.' It becomes a hit when people like your compositions.

You know, your ears record. You might can sing a song once you hear it.

Don't bother me, leave me alone. Anyway, I'm almost grown.

Music is music; you can't change rock and say well this is punk rock and this is acid rock or rockabilly.

Rock is rock, and, rock and roll, rock is just short for rock and roll.

It is sometimes the most fragile things that have the power to endure and become sources of strength.

Even the holy men who lived before the coming of Christ understood that God had in mind plans of peace for the human race.

Anne Boleyn was a warrior forced to use the only tools available to a woman in her position at that time. She was bold and ambitious, and had she had a son, history would have been very different.

One of the luckiest things that can happen to you in life is, I think, to have a happy childhood.

To make films is as boring as watching paint dry - you usually have to do little tiny bits here and there. You go off waiting for lighting, you come back - the energy dies. You hope you can find someone who can keep it going.

I don't want to say that sanctions are ridiculous and that we couldn't care less; these are not pleasant things... We find little joy in that, but there are no painful sensations. We have lived through tougher times.

If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another.

When a girl finally texts me back, that ding on the phone is like an angel singing.

Everyone brings their own particular skill set to the job, and acting training can work for a lot of actors, and it can't. I've seen a lot of really good actors go into acting schools and then come out a little bit corrupted.

I've ended up feeling fonder of 'The Paying Guests' than of any of my other novels.

What you are afraid to do is a clear indication of the next thing you need to do.

Masculine and feminine aspects exist in all beings.

It's quite extraordinary to hear a supposedly learned person call the United States a leading terrorist nation, one of the leading terrorist nations in the world. It's false and very treacherous teaching.

Without thoughts the mind cannot exist only consciousness.

I'm going to give away a lot more than half my money. I'd be happy to give that to the government if the government put together programs that were like I'm giving away to charity, in which I believe the money is effectively used to help people.

It is by attempting to reach the top in a single leap that so much misery is produced in the world.

The Expanded Learning Time program is a voluntary one - only districts and schools that want to apply are in the program and supported by the state to pursue their plans.

I'm not a cinephile. My films don't reference films. I'm more interested in rhythm and feeling.

Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.

Growing up in Miami, I had all these great, strong influences. You know, being Cuban and the Latin influence, but also the strong hip-hop influence.