I'm an atheist, but I'm very relaxed about it. I don't preach my atheism, but I have a huge amount of respect for people like Richard Dawkins who do.
It's important for me to treat a girlfriend with respect. My mum would be horrified if I behaved any differently - and I have sisters, and would hate for them to be treated badly by guys.
I'm a mama's boy because everything I do is with respect to my mother. I won't do a movie or a video that would bring disrespect to my mother.
Honestly, I'm not interested in gossip. Thing is, I know a lot of successful actors, and in hoping to be successful myself, I would like to think others would respect my privacy.
You can't buy back your respect; you can't buy back your career. You only get one, so I don't want to mess that up.
I listen to Jay-Z, Nelly, Nas, Ludacris and all the young kids out there. I listen to them, and I have mad respect for them.
As a label, you have to treat every group and every record as a unique entity. I think that that has been our success, rather than relying upon a fan base.
I sang in the coffee houses of the country in the early '60s with no idea of success in terms of records or television. I just thought I was a storyteller. I didn't even think of myself as a singer.
It's kinda nice to be remembered by your peers and your fans, because you can achieve a lot of success and be a creep too! But we try to be nice, just normal people.
I think you can have moderate success by copying something else, but if you really want to knock it out of the park, you have to do something different and take chances.
I just pinch myself, because I think if there's anything I can be proud of, I've survived success, which I think is difficult these days.
My issue with the state of women became incredibly stimulated when I was visiting developing countries and it became obvious that women bore the brunt of so many things in society.
I think that people should learn about that. In most music, there's one way that you do something, and that's the only way. In jazz, it's a lot different.
Engineering producers who don't play and have technology as a background may be the reason why there's a lot of cold non-musical music, for lack of a better description.
I can take any series of numbers and turn it into music, from Bach to bebop, Herbie Hancock to hip-hop.
The BBC were not playing the music that was happening on the street so we did an independent production because we knew we had an audience. Then we licensed the album to EMI.
Taxi drivers used to ask me what kind of music I did, and I'd say, 'Well, it's kind of jazz, soul, classical' - but that makes no sense to anyone.
Most artists have contracts directly with the record company, and when they do music, all of their music is owned by the record company. But I did mine through a production company.
I have an immense amount of respect for acting. I've always loved movies and was always fascinated by movie-making. But to become an actor, I wanted to commit myself.
I look at my clarinet sometimes and I think, I wonder what's going to come out of there tonight? You never know.
Look, you come in here tomorrow, and anything you do with your right hand I'll do with my left.
