Growing up as a singer, and a cast member, and now as an adult, a songwriter, I get the luxury of choosing the kinds of songs that I want to sing, because I'll write, you know, hundreds of songs. Even though only 12 appear on the album. That's 12 that I've chosen to sing of my catalog.

I want to know why we exist and what I can do while I'm existing. Basically. it's learning how to exist, wholely, consciously. Growing up on fast food and television shows, you can easily forget to exist. You can even be treated as if you don't.

I don't think love is a tricky issue at all. Love is best understood when we share: Share time, energy, food, resources, insights, information, whatever. It's usually thought of as something that exists between two people, but that's just because it's easier to see and feel in the space between them. Each person is sharing a lot with the other.

Paul McCartney and John Lennon would often write a song a day, so I have the same workmanlike philosophy.

Most women set out to try to change a man, and when they have changed him they do not like him.

Even if I could, I wouldn't want to undo the transformation of jazz into a sophisticated art music.

I'm not trying to uncover the facts of my life but to discover the dramatic truth of the situations I was in.

I take nothing away from my existence in the 'hood, because it sharpened my instincts. We had a different way of living that developed our survival instincts, and I use those to this day when I make films. You can't buy that.