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" When I was 14, I would sit up in my room and write till my eyes would bleed. "

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" Just blow in it and sound bad for about a year and then make it sound a little bit better, and you get a little band together, and then you get a few jobs. You take four guys that sound half bad, but if they're 25 percent each, they can give 100 percent, you know? "

" It slaps your dignity just right. I loved the idea of these proud, dignified black men, and I saw the older ones wounded, and it wounded me ten times as much because I couldn't stand seeing them hurt like this. "

" Every country can be defined through their food, their music and their language. That's the soul of a country. "

" I think the attraction of 'American Idol' is about the basic human nature attitude that is, 'We can put you up there. But we can take you down.' "

" I was rapping in 1939. It's old. The roots are complex. And kids don't know. "

" Without the Fender bass, there'd be no rock n' roll or no Motown. The electric guitar had been waiting 'round since 1939 for a nice partner to come along. It became an electric rhythm section, and that changed everything. "

" I only hope that one day, America will recognize what the rest of the world already has known, that our indigenous music - gospel, blues, jazz and R&B - is the heart and soul of all popular music; and that we cannot afford to let this legacy slip into obscurity, I'm telling you. "

" After I learned the piano, I went on to learn percussion, the tuba, b-flat baritone, French horn, trombone, trumpet, most of the instruments in the orchestra. Trumpet was my instrument. "

" I have all the tools and gadgets. I tell my son, who's a producer, 'You never work for the machine; the machine works for you.' "

" I never cared about money or fame, and I don't care now. I follow the groove, and money always follows. "

" I don't remember feeling love. "

" I believe in astrology as much as I do in genetics. "

" I met Ray Charles at 14, and he was 16. But he was like a hundred years older than me. "

" The climate in the '50s and '60s for black performers or black people in the entertainment business was atrocious. It was atrocious. "

" I was married for 36 years but now I'm free. "

" I was inspired by a lot of people when I was young. Every band that came through town, to the theater, or the dance hall. I was at every dance, every night club, listened to every band that came through, because in those days we didn't have MTV, we didn't have television. "

" My grandmother had this high-tech security system - a rusty nail she used to lock the door. "

" I was raised in Chicago and I guess that was one of the special breeding grounds for gangsters of all colors. That was the Detroit of the gangster world. The car industry was thugs. "

" I started imagining this whole different world. It was a society of musicians, a family I hoped I could belong to one day. "

" I was the most subtle person in the world. "

" I'm just a musician and a record producer. "

" I guess hip-hop has been closer to the pulse of the streets than any music we've had in a long time. It's sociology as well as music, which is in keeping with the tradition of black music in America. "

" We stole a box of honey jars one time and went out in the woods and took care of the whole box. I don't think I touched honey again for 20 years. I never wanted to see honey again. "

" Every day, my daddy told me the same thing. 'Once a task is just begun, never leave it till it's done. Be the labour great or small, do it well or not at all.' "

" I'm a tremendous believer and supporter in hip-hop and rap. "

" Frank Sinatra took me to a whole new planet. I worked with him until he passed away in '98. He left me his ring. I never take it off. Now, when I go to Sicily, I don't need a passport. I just flash my ring. "

" We got into all the trouble you could ever imagine. We figured that if the Jones boys and all the gangsters ran Chicago, we had our own territory now. All the stores, all the crime, we were in charge of everything, my stepbrother and my brother. "

" My son is a hip-hop producer. "

" I'm never in my life going to do a record that's a tribute to myself. I don't need it. "

" I like all music. The only music I don't like is bad music. "