I realised a long time ago that instrumental music speaks a lot more clearly than English, Spanish, Yiddish, Swahili, any other language. Pure melody goes outside time.

When you fly to New York, sometimes they put you on hold and you just go round and around in a holding pattern. Sometimes in a concert, I feel other spirits in a holding pattern that they want to land through my heart and through my fingers.

Unconditional love. Talking bout the stuff that don't wear off, it don't fade. It'll last for all these crazy days, these crazy nights. Whether you wrong or you right, I'ma still love you, still feel you, still there for you. No matter what, you will always be in my heart with unconditional love.

Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand.

Writing for other artists helped me figure out that magic you have to capture to make everyone connect with a song.

At certain times I read a lot of poetry. My favorite poets are Shelley and Keats. Rimbaud is so identifiable. Lord Byron. I don't know. Lately if I read poems, it's like I can always hear the guitar. Even with Shakespeare's sonnets I can hear a melody because it's all broken up into timed phrases so I hear it. I always keep thinking, 'What kind of song would this be?'