“But if you think of all the people who don’t like me, just think of all the millions who’ve never heard of me!”

Oh, I think it’s definitely spiritual. All music is. I think it’s maybe one of the highest forms of spirituality.

If you really want to get along with somebody, let them be themselves.

When you put your life in a good place, good things follow.

I’m an old fashioned joint smoker ya know.

I didn’t come here and I ain’t leavin’.

Sadly, there are more wild horses in holding pens than in the wild.

You’ll never get ahead by blaming your problems on other people.

When songs fall from the sky, all I can do is catch them before they hit the ground.

Heard you told him that you’d love him ’til the end of time. Now that’s the same thing that you told me.

What has changed is that nothing has changed. That’s what has made me more unhappy than everything else.

You can’t make a record if you ain’t got nothin’ to say.

I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?

Marijuana is like sex: If I don’t do it every day I get a headache.

I’m crazy for trying, crazy for crying, and I’m crazy for loving you.

I don’t think any person has any special knowledge about what God has planned for me and you any more than me and you do.

Love is like a dying ember, only memories remain.

The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Phil Spector. Those were my idols.

My music is often written from the perspective of an extroverted introvert.

Music took me from a real dark place to a real bright one.

If music wakes you up, makes you think, heals you…then, I guess the music is working.

I used to think that there was a certain way I had to stick to when it came to R&B, but now I’m saying whatever, the same way these rappers do. I’m bringing that into R&B music.

He took in the squeaky music, the vulgar and pining melodies, because passion immobilizes good taste and seriously considers what soberly would be thought of as funny and to be resented.

I also like Western classical music and jazz.

You’ve got to sing from the depths of the heart. Without heart, you cannot be a Qawwal.