When I was first starting out, you'd have to bang an old upright piano and stick a mike in it and it would always feed back and you could never turn it up loud enough to be heard and I would beat my hands black and blue and bloody.

I really had little interest in becoming famous. When I write my book, it will be my guide to avoid becoming a rock star.

There's a bootleg album that was recorded when I was 14 or 15, a compilation of things live at different clubs. Songs like Girl from Ipanema and Cry Me A River. I don't know what the title of it is.

I hadn't realized the number of people that are still interested in listening to what I am doing, people I would never know about if not for being online.

I once had a dream and this one familiar god, who was probably one of my master teachers, said, 'You should not worry about being on the charts. That's not important.'

If only we can open our eyes, we'll see God's love everywhere.

The poem 'What Teachers Make' is not without its detractors. This one person wrote to me and said: 'Gee, Mr. Mali. You don't possibly have a teacher-God complex, do you?' And that was the first time I'd ever heard of that expression. So, yeah, I'm sure I have a teacher-God complex.

Faith is not contrary to reason.