My older brother and myself always played together in bands, but we never knew we would be professional musicians.

I'm not a person who writes really abstract things with oblique references. I look at abstraction like I look at condiments. Give me some Tabasco sauce, some ketchup, some mayonnaise. I love all of that. Put it on a trumpet. I've just got to have the ketchup and Tabasco sauce. That's my attitude about musical philosophy.

I didn't have a philosophical understanding of music until I came to New York. I didn't understand how it applied to my kind and my generation. I thought it was just old people talking.

What I really have in my head, my imagination, my understanding of music, I never really get that out.

I operate better with education and awareness, like I think all of us do. I don't like to be walking around in a vacuum, lost in my own thoughts. I'm much better with information.

Children need to get a high-quality education, avoid violence and the criminal-justice system, and gain jobs. But they deserve more. We want them to learn not only reading and math but fairness, caring, self-respect, family commitment, and civic duty.

I respect faith, but doubt is what gives you an education.

I may try and get into education. I may open a school, and that is my ultimate dream. Opening a school will give education to children, who are the future of our country. If we can educate them in a proper way, I think that will change the future of the country.