“Most people are prisoners, thinking only about the future or living in the past. They are not in the present, and the present is where everything begins.”

First of all, the music that people call Latin or Spanish is really African. So Black people need to get the credit for that.

There is nothing more contagious on this planet than enthusiasm.

The best part of touring, still, is touching people’s hearts and igniting my band and igniting the people into what you call a spiritual revelation is sound and emotion.

Everything is a battlefield. If you fight with anger, you are part of the problem. If you fight with joy, you’re part of the solution.

Some songs are just like tattoos for your brain… you hear them and they’re affixed to you.

One day there will be no borders, no boundaries, no flags and no countries and the only passport will be the heart.

If you carry joy in your heart, you can heal any moment.

Your wrinkles either show that you’re nasty, cranky, and senile, or that you’re always smiling.

You’re always cursing, you’re always praying and you’re always making love. It ain’t do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do.

I’m laughing because I know the secret of life. And the secret of life is that I have validated my existence. I know that I am worth more than my house, my bank account, or any physical thing.

I am here to give voice to the invisible.

I have wisdom. I feel love. I live in the present and I try to present a dimension that brings harmony and healing.

Ever since I was a child I’ve always been very attracted to melodies. Whether I hear Jeff Beck, a choir, an ocean or the wind, there’s always a melody in there.

If our history can challenge the next wave of musicians to keep moving and changing, to keep spiritually hungry and horny, that’s what it’s all about.

The more choices we give patients affected by depression, the better we will serve them.

My job in this life is to give people spiritual ecstasy through music. In my concerts people cry, laugh, dance. If they climaxed spiritually, I did my job. I did it decently and honestly.

Sometimes beginnings aren’t so simple, sometimes goodbye’s the only way.

Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed.

Oh to be a pear tree – any tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world!

I have so much I want to tell you, and nowhere to begin.

Every harlot was a virgin once

He that climbs a ladder must begin at the first round.

We have within ourselves Enough to fill the present day with joy, And overspread the future years with hope.

In my end is my beginning.