If it was just me and Elvis one on one, which only happened once or twice in the times that I did see him, it was a really comfortable. He was a cool guy. Easy laugh, nice guy.

I worked for a publishing company in Hollywood.

In the Ghetto, I'd been trying to write for years.

I had Elvis' number in my book and I never called it.

I met the Colonel when Elvis was recording some song I'd written for one of his movies. Elvis was just having fun with the gang and all the Memphis boys and Colonel Parker was sitting over here in like a theater seat.

I was out on the golf course, a guy came riding out in a golf cart and said, Did you know that Elvis died? And I just said, Well, there you go. It was like I had kinda been expecting it.

I had always wanted to write a song called, The Vicious Circle. I always thought it was like, the kids are born there, they grow up there, they die there.

Elvis was just like a big old kid. It was like he never got past 19, I don't think, in a lotta ways.

First time I saw Elvis was at the Lubbock County fairgrounds in Lubbock, Texas. He was on the back end of a truck. There was about 1500 screaming kids.

I didn't have a lot of communication with Elvis. You had to go through a barricade to get to Elvis. It was people hanging on every word, and I felt very uncomfortable a lot of times.

It's pretty amazing to me that my first hit record was an Elvis Presley record.

I still have an old painting the Colonel gave me. It was the first time the Colonel had been back to the Hilton since Elvis had passed away.

Don't Cry Daddy is a pretty sad song. He got to the end of it and it was just real quiet and Elvis says, I'm gonna cut that someday for my daddy. And, by God, he did. He lived up to his word.

I'm sure that Elvis was happy for me. I think he was the kind of guy that enjoyed other people's success, especially if he had something to do with it.

If it was just me and Elvis one on one, which only happened once or twice in the times that I did see him, it was a really comfortable. He was a cool guy. Easy laugh, nice guy.

Every performer who ever performed in rock and roll or even close to it is lying if they tell you that they weren't influenced in some way or another by Elvis Presley. He turned the world around.

There was a chance for me to write one song for the section where Elvis sat in his black leather outfit and sang the old hits. At eight oclock the next morning I had written Memories.

One of my real goals was to hear someone whistling a song I'd written.

I'm not living for when I have a Number One record or when I make a million trillion dollars. I'm not doing this to get somewhere else. I'm doing it because I'm doing it.'

I had a little portable typewriter. I call it my Harlem Literary Fellowship.

I love playing other people's work. I love acting.

Be content with what you have rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking the whole world belongs to you.

I play a percussion instrument, not a musical saw; it needs no amplification. Where it's needed, they put a microphone in front of the bass drum. But, I don't think it's necessary to play that way every night.

The print magazine and print journalism industry is obviously in a great deal of trouble, and one of the things that happened when this business started to give way to the Internet and to broadcast television is that a lot of organizations started cutting specifically investigative journalism and they also started cutting fact-checkers.

To get through a war, a man needs something bigger than himself to fight for.

The guilt I felt for having a mental illness was horrible. I prayed for a broken bone that would heal in six weeks. But that never happened. I was cursed with an illness that nobody could see and nobody knew much about.

It is nice to have valid competition; it pushes you to do better.

If we wish our nature to be free and joyous, we should bring our activities into same order.

I think musicians and actors have all these problems, because of the popularity and the opportunity.

You must work - we must all work to make the world worthy of its children.

From the moment of using rocket devices; a great new era will begin in astronomy: the epoch of the more intensive study of the firmament

I have a production company where we create socially conscious media and content.

I would encourage anybody struggling with their sexuality to go with their heart. If it's not an appropriate time, there will be one later. Never, ever try to rush into anything - do it in your own time.

Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

No question is so difficult to answer as that which the answer is obvious.

If you're in somebody's head for 12 hours a day for four weeks, it's like your brain actually wires itself to start thinking that way.

It is human nature, especially as we get older, to look for stability in our lives. But if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to fight against that somewhat, as starting a business requires movement. You cannot stay still.

Here we encounter two conflicting concepts with which we must come to grips in our time: the idea of national solidarity and the idea of international cooperation.

I was never a 'sit down with a notepad and write lyrics' kind of person.

Seeing is not always believing.

In talking with people that have experienced it, I learned that PTSD is something that a person in a position of authority sometimes thinks they're not supposed to have. They don't always have an avenue to personally address it or even discuss it.

When energy speeds up there is no space for playing small, and nothing can remain hidden.