“The worst thing you can become in life is cynical. Cynical is like concrete. and nothing grows in concrete.”

If you stay in your heart you will always be inspired and if you are inspired you will always be enthusiastic. There is nothing more contagious on this planet as enthusiasm.

The most valuable possession you can own is an open heart. The most powerful weapon you can be is an instrument of peace.

You meditate and you got the candles, you got the incense and you’ve been chanting, and all of a sudden you hear this voice: ‘Write this down’

Most people don’t have that willingness to break bad habits. They have a lot of excuses and they talk like victims.

The guitar is your first wings. It’s assigned and designed to unfold your vision and imagination.

When you are in your heart of hearts, you can see beyond appearances.

There is divinity in your DNA. Live your light.

I realised a long time ago that instrumental music speaks a lot more clearly than English, Spanish, Yiddish, Swahili, any other language. Pure melody goes outside time.

I knuckle down with my demons, and with my weaknesses.

Live up to your convictions. You walk in grace or you walk in fear. You can’t have it both ways.

The Devil is like a strainer that separates the mud from the gold.

I would invite all Latin people to do nothing for about two weeks so you can see who really, really is running the economy I am here to give voice to the invisible.

Your mind is a magnet. You don’t attract what you need or what you want; you attract who you are. And I love who I am!

There is no person that love cannot heal; there is no soul that love cannot save.

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 strong grows in solitude where the weak withers away.

It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.

Your family and your love must be cultivated like a garden. Time, effort, and imagination must be summoned constantly to keep any relationship flourishing and growing.

Don’t just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.

Surround yourself around people who want to see you grow.

When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.

Commit to reinvent yourself, to know that real growth happens in a place of discomfort.

You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.