“I woke up one morning, went downstairs, said ‘Good morning’ to my mother and nearly scared both of us to death.’”

I’m so thankful that your mine, your sweetness is my weakness.

You’re the first, the last, and my everything and the answer to all my dreams. You’re my sun, my moon, my guiding star, my kind of wonderful, that’s what you are

As a boy, I believed freedom for America meant freedom for me. There was a time I believed every word spoken.

Mama tried to save us from the streets, but the streets were too strong.

There’s a time when people give their words to each other it has to mean something. I’m a street cat. I’ve belonged in gangs and when you had a partner, you went down with your partner whether you won the fight or lost it. You went down together.

I’ve always loved War’s Low Rider and Sly Stone’s Thank You, and I just wanted to put my take on them.

A kid who was on welfare, because he refused to steal anybody’s property or take anybody’s money. You found life a lot tougher.

Elton John’s opinion turned the label’s opinion around, all in a day.

I went to jail at 16 for stealing tires off Cadillacs. When I got out I said, Never again.

I didn’t mind working in the clubs, but I resented it being a club where pimps hang out. Because the music that I create is of a higher intellect than that. It not only encompasses pimps, but whores, ballplayers, executives… everybody.

Blacks own so little of the music business, it’s pathetic. But I see that changing soon. Black artists, black businessmen and women will unite.

When I commit, I commit with my whole heart, my whole being. I know the Bible like the back of my hand.

I quit high school on my birthday. It was my senior year and I didn’t see the point. This was 1962, and I was ready to make music.

No one could understand the bond between me and my brother. I struggled to understand the forces that drove his soul in one direction and mine in another.

The women used the music to get their men to relate to them better: “talk to me, tell me what’s on your mind.”

It’s ecstasy when you’re laying down next to me.

I’m not scared at all… Of the cracks in the crystal ball.

The higher goal of spiritual living is not to amass a wealth of information, but to face sacred moments.

They are scared that the BBC or CNN may call them radicals, so they remain soft instead. The problem lies there, with the Muslim leaders, not the Muslim masses.

Science is not a sacred cow. Science is a horse. Don’t worship it. Feed it. [Addressing a group of prospective contributors to an Israeli scientific research program]

All our “most sacred affections ” are merely prosaic habit.

Oh, monsters are scared,” said Lettie.” That’s why they’re monsters.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

As we speak I’m at peace, no longer scared to die.