“I have stage fright every single concert I’ve ever done. I have at least four or five minutes of it. It’s absolute living hell.”

I think cursing is a bunch of malarkey.

I believe that music is God’s voice.

Every now and then I hear voices in my head, but not very clear. I can’t understand what they are saying. It’s a mental illness. I have been diagnosed as a manic depressive.

If there’s not love present, it’s much, much harder to function. When there’s love present, it’s easier to deal with life.

J.S. Bach was easily the greatest musical innovator in the history of the world. He was so advanced for his time. There’s a spiritual depth to his music. You can listen to it and it’s like meditation.

The only reason I’d ever get a sex change operation is to see what it’s like to be right all the time.

There’s nothing greater than a girl…. Well a kid, your daughter, but that’s a girl too.

Humor – it helps to make the vibe better – it loosens up the vibrations.

People are part of my music. A lot of my songs are the result of emotional experiences, sadness, pain, joy, and exultation in nature and sunshine and so on…like ‘California Girls’ which was a hymn to youth.

I still believe that something is right only when it feels right.

I consider myself to be a crusader of love. I try to spread love around the world as best I can because I know I have a handle on love.

You say how you feel, and songs don’t lie. Songs are the most honest form of human expression there is–there’s nothing that lies about a song.

I get off on hearing other people’s voices. I like voices: they’re my favourite things on records.

Love and mercy that’s what you need tonight. Love and mercy to you and your friends tonight.

Some people might think that sex is the highest experience you can have. I tend to think that music is.

I think in terms of emotions. And feelings. So sometimes what I say may not always be clear. But creatively, there’s a lot to be said for that way of thinking.

You’re trying to take something that can be described in many, many sentences and pages of prose, but you can convert it into a couple lines of poetry and you still get the essence, so it’s that compression. The best code is poetry.

I’m going for the concert, but I’m really going for the corn.

I just… want to be a man who has been to a concert with a girl in a red dress. Just for a few minutes more.

“I’m fine. I just…I don’t want to go in just yet. I just want to sit and not have to think about…I just…want to be a man who has been to a concert with a girl in a red dress. Just for a few minutes more.

I don’t like [to] make a woman … an abstract concept of the fashion. I don’t like [to] say, “You must wear that.” … I am not a dictator.

The doors of churches, hotels, concert halls and reading rooms are alike closed against the Negro as a man, but every place is open to him as a servant.

Don’t get me wrong – I’ve gone to a club. But I’d much rather be with my close friends at home or a concert, or on a trip. I’ll go dancing with my grandma. She likes to cut a rug!

If you realize you are only a violin, you can open yourself up to the world by playing your role in the concert.