Growing up in the neighborhoods I did in Oakland, you don't know the Beatles, but I started learning their songs.

We should not fear what is new, but we should not throw out that which is in the past but is still valuable.

Live performance is everything. First of all, I have terrible stage fright. But beyond that, once the music starts, it's OK.

What did winning a Grammy do for me? It made me want to get rid of my Grammy, pack it away, and never see it again. It made me not want to speak to anyone who wanted to speak about my Grammy.

I think that is what film and art and music do; they can work as a map of sorts for your feelings.

Television offers a range and scope, and a degree of creativity and daring, that the bottom-line, global-audience-obsessed, brand-driven movie industry just can't compete with.

I'm not an advocate of true rhymes, I don't think. I think that everyone who writes musical theater needs to know how to do true rhymes, because that's the tradition of it, but I do think that in order for the art form to grow, it's important to not let tradition get in the way of innovation.

All good performance pieces have some philosophical validity. That's the difference between mere theater and performance art.