The early ELP albums were pioneering in a way.

When you play music with someone who has a heart rather than playing with someone who is just doing it for money or is cynical it makes all the difference.

I just got a call one day from Ringo asking me if I wanted to go out on the tour. It was as simple as that. He was putting together this band and he heard of me in the context of doing this and he gave me a call. I jumped at the chance.

Unless you go forward then you are going back.

When you are in a band for a number of years you loose your identity in a way. You become a part of that band and then all of a sudden you are not part of that band. You are still the band without the other two members.

I feel with ELP that I wasn't making the most of my life and I wasn't making the most of my creativity. I was marking time. I don't want to do that. Life is to short.

The early ELP albums were pioneering in a way.

Making a comeback is one of the most difficult things to do with dignity.

When we made that album with Gary Moore, I was still kind of searching for the right direction for myself. Although the music is quite good the direction was like a box of fireworks that caught light all at the same time.

As I said to Ringo, I was in a successful Rock N Roll band. He was in a band that changed the world. That's the difference.

Philosophically, what I have learned is to thy own self be true. That is the biggest lesson of all. Relax; music is fun. To many people take it to seriously because of the money involved.

There is no standing still because time is moving forward.

I would like to involve myself in some black music. I would like to do some blues and some gospel music. I want to try stuff from other genres and try to widen my musical base.

The greatest music is made for love, not for money.

I don't think art is a goal orientated business. I don't do things for the challenges, I only do them because I love them, I'm not really a goal orientated, achiever type of person.

Certain things you learn through exposure. It's really the elements which make up any artist. You really learn by example. You learn by influence. And some people have a huge impact on you, and that's how you become the artist you are.

I love touring in the United States. It's dramatically different wherever you go. North to south, you're going from snow to palm trees.

I picked up the guitar at 12 yrs old - basically, my mother and father bought it for me for Christmas. I played one at my friend's house; when I say played it, I just played around with it at my friend's house. It just struck me as something I really wanted.

It's true when they say songwriting is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. In truth, what happens is... songs comes through you.

Most of my career has been about standing on a stage performing music to an audience, and once the show is over, they go home and I go on to the next show.

Music is an emotional experience, and that is what imprints itself on the soul. And I think for me, any great art is art which communicates human emotion.

Progressive music probably wouldn't even really exist if not for the people of the United States having picked up on it and nurtured it in the way they did. It really is an American form of music in the sense that it was nurtured here. So it belongs here. It has become part of the fabric of American musical culture.

Songs are like children. They are all special to me - you can't just pick a favorite. Of course, 'Lucky Man' was a special tune with a wonderful story behind it. They have all done different things.

The less people that are on the stage, there's more drama. You start living the music with each individual. When you see a band with ten people on stage, just a huge ensemble, you don't know who's doing what.

What I learned then was there is a certain power in a three piece band. The more people you put on that stage, the more diluted it becomes.

When I was writing my autobiography, these songs came up from time to time which were important to me, and I realized that what they really represented was, they'd come from this age of shared music.

You often hear people say 'Luck is self made.' I think it is, to a certain extent; if you work hard on something, you are more likely to be lucky than if you don't. That having been said, I do believe during in my career I have been at the right place at the right time with the right people.

Celibacy is not just a matter of not having sex. It is a way of admiring a person for their humanity maybe even for their beauty.

I've directed 'Raisin in the Sun' five times. You keep discovering things. You keep on seeing things in the script that you never saw before. That's what great pieces of art do.

Unless the guitar works as a color, then I don't use it, so I haven't been playing guitar too much lately.

There are so many things you can do with a culinary degree.

Social media demands a lot of us on top of our already demanding lives. So let's disconnect as we need to and renew our interest and ourselves.

Arithmetic is where the answer is right and everything is nice and you can look out of the window and see the blue sky - or the answer is wrong and you have to start over and try again and see how it comes out this time.

When I was nine, I was taught to ride a surfboard in Waikiki by the beach boy Rabbit Kekai.

As cheesy as it sounds, all my eggs were never in just one basket. I had a thousand baskets going on.

Truman is now seen as a near-great president because he put in place the containment doctrine boosted by the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan and NATO, which historians now see as having been at the center of American success in the cold war.

I can always see light in any situation. It's just the way I'm made.

I'm the girl next door, not the sex symbol.

There are times when you see how ridiculous is this life, how ludicrous it is, you know, leaving your house every morning and being followed by paparazzi.

It's not even my job to educate, but what I do is try to facilitate by creating a book that works on different levels. I do want to entertain and bring some joy to the reading experience. If it holds a little kernel of knowledge that readers choose to explore, well, that's great.

I like a girl who doesn't play any games. I like a very sweet girl.

A widespread belief is more often likely to be foolish than sensible.

I have a Roman nose. It roams all over my face.

At the time of the Civil War, there were six democracies in the face of the planet. Today, there's 120 and they've been inspired by the American exceptionalism.

The less there is to justify a traditional custom the harder it is to get rid of it

Fascination is one step beyond interest. Interested people want to know if it works. Fascinated people want to learn how it works.

About 3,500 years ago, when a patriarch called Moses was supposed to be leading a tribe of Seth's descendants out of the deserts of the Sinai Peninsula, another tribe of shepherds and pastoralists had already established a small kingdom for itself at Balkh.

As long as I have ambition, maybe I can achieve something for my country.

No matter how difficult the past, you can always begin again today.