Nile Rodgers

Every record I have done was because I was a person's friend. The only time we did not continue to be friends was if the record did not become a hit. If it did, we became great friends.

I used to play flute and clarinet at school, and although I wasn't thinking about making a living or getting a pay cheque, I already knew I was going to play music all my life.

I am very rich because of 'Chic' - artistically as well as spiritually. It's been an amazing life.

There's never been a song that I just wrote and tried to send to an artist.

I've had insomnia since I was five years old. I just don't require much sleep. I'm never tired.

With Sumthin Else Music Works, I wanted to spread the love and give newcomers a chance to make it because something that really helped me were all the people who had given me an opportunity when I was putting my career together.

The only person I have regrets about is Miles Davis. He and I had become good friends after we did a photo shoot, and coincidentally, we kept running into each other at parties and stuff. I regret not having written a hit for Miles Davis.

You can fool a person into going to see a movie with a good trailer.

Any real record person knows that the number one most powerful marketing tool when it comes to music is repetition.

My life was really interesting before 'Chic.'

Nobody under the sun was like Madonna. She was positive and clear and wholly dedicated to achieving everything that she's achieved.

Music has to keep moving. But I was lucky. For me there was always something around the corner.

Music is the one part of the entertainment business where you can't fool anybody into buying a record.

Trust me, the only real way to understand 'Chic' is in highfalutin terms. Our chord progressions were based on European modal melodies. I made those early 'Chic' records to impress my jazz friends.

My childhood was bittersweet in many ways. We moved around a lot. By the time I was 10, I had travelled thousands of miles, often on my own. My parents were like my friends, so it felt like I didn't really have parents at all. But in a crazy way that was very liberating. It forced me to be independent, maybe a leader, and certainly a survivor.

Bands always call me when they are in need of a boost and I come in and put them back on top.

Art is something that opens up and enhances your emotions and that's what I like to think I'm doing.

It feels like my job is to support people. I support great artists. When I worked with a symphony, I sat in the third chair, not the first chair.

I've been working since I was a child. I worked cutting lawns, delivering newspapers; I was a telephone salesperson; I was a guitar repairman.

I'm always the last person in the world who would ever try to predict a trend.

I'd probably be a super wealthy guy if I had sat around writing songs and getting them placed like everyone else I know. But I write songs about people or after I meet them and they're somewhat biographical - they're fiction but also non-fiction.

Art, well good art at least, takes you to a place you go during the experience of it, and then after you experience it you are different.

I think the hardest thing to overcome is judging yourself and being your own worst critic so to speak.

I'm always swimming forward like a shark. You just keep going and you don't rest. I love waking up knowing that I have a problem to solve.

It was actually my partner, Bernard Edwards, who helped me develop my sort of funky jazz style.

I wouldn't know how to retire.