“There’s only one proper way a song should go, but you’ve got to be patient enough to let them come together time wise.”

As a songwriter, I don’t rush. I may sit on lyrics for two years before the music hits.

We’re always moving forward in different places physically and psychologically.

I just want to keep doing what I feel.

The world awakens on the run And will soon be earning With hopes of better days to come It’s a morning yearning.

I grew up listening to spiritual music, Blind Willie Johnson and folk.

You’re living life in real time, man, and we’ ve got a good amount of work to do for each other. Hiding is not an option and you’re going to step out and you’re going to make mistakes.

The spirit is what guides my life, and I’m humbly on my knees in thanks for guidance and direction every day. But God is not something to be preached, it’s something to be lived.

To go through this life and see it through – what it really is – and not be insane or addicted, is a minor miracle for anyone.

All that we can’t say is all we need to hear.

We’ve changed our reflections, but inside we’re just a child.

Genetics do play a role in how you consciously or subconsciously manifest your true self.

What enables me to believe in anything is hope.

In my life I have been blessed In my life I have been cursed I have lived the best of times I have suffered the worst Do you know which road you’re traveling? Do you know where you want to be? With so many roads to travel, There’s just one can set you free.

Love for me is my North Star. It’s the highest form of grace. And I love that there’s different levels and different ways of showing it, and different representations of it. Whether it’s love shown to a stranger, love to a sibling, your child, your parents, your partner.

It’s so hard to do and so easy to say but sometimes you just have to walk away

There’s no room in my life for religion. Religion is separation and segregation of God. How can you segregate the Almighty?

Yes, it’s true – I love the roar of the crowd. When the fans are with you, their voices come together in a big booming rush of sound that you can actually feel in your body – almost like a wave that lifts you and carries you past your own limits.

Christmas for me is all about spending time with my family. I cherish any chance we have to spend all day together making gingerbread houses, baking cookies, or sitting around and watching movies.

We are seeing a great awakening. A national movement of We the People, brought together by what unites us – a shared love of liberty, and an understanding of the unlimited potential of free men and free women.

The lessons from the peace process are clear; whatever life throws at us, our individual responses will be all the stronger for working together and sharing the load.

We are special because we’ve been united not by a common race or ethnicity. We’re bound together by common values. That family is the most important institution in society. That almighty God is the source of all we have.

Everything in the world is full of signs. All events are coordinated. All things depend on each other. Everything breathes together.

Someone else looks at it and sees a slightly awry phase of it. But taken all together, the truth is in what they saw though nobody saw the truth intact.

The combination of pictures and words together can be really effective, and I began to realise in my career that unless I wrote my own words, then my message was diluted