“I'd never realized how bad that house needed music until I heard it, I knew right then that big houses need music more than little ones.”

“When Obama was elected president, a prisoner said “one black man in the White House doesn’t make up for one million black men in the Big House.”

“I am no more annoyed when I think of the expression, than I should be annoyed by a man's opinion of a picture of mine, who had no eye for pictures; or of a piece of music of mine, who had no ear for music.”

“I don't like painting flowers in my music. I like painting guts and pain”

“Good music is good no matter what kind of music it is.”

“And I'd started thinking about my mother's last weeks--the way she'd drifted listlessly about the house in her dressing gown, cigarettes in one hand, glass of something strong-smelling in the other. ”

“I feel pretty good about it so far, but it's been a little harder to write than I'd hoped.”