Curtis Mayfield

Our purpose is to educate as well as to entertain. ”

With a spinal cord injury, which most people don't really know about... there are many, many complications that actually lead you through your life, and sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down. ”

I think my grandmother was one of my biggest influences. ”

Everything was a song. Every conversation, every personal hurt, every observance of people in stress, happiness and love... if you could feel it, I could feel it. And I could write a song about it. ”

Through my fans and my children, my wife, just good people, I'm coping. ”

I was a very observant child. Almost anything could become a song to me. ”

Reading the script, I started feeling very deeply bad for Freddie. Between his friends, his partners, and his woman, he was catching a hard time. 'Freddie's Dead' came to me immediately. ”

My art and my creativities were totally something that was of my own heart and mind. I could never let anybody dictate to me what I should write and how I would write it. ”