Whenever I'm faced with an issue, I deal with it squarely, even if I was going to fail, I try to learn from my mistakes. So if we appreciate our past, then we can understand where we are at presently.

I just practice. I do six hours of practice everyday. I set to teach myself the trumpet they all said I would never play. I put the organ in my music, like if you listen to my work Day By Day, which got me my second Grammy nomination.

When I die, I want to see Malcom X, Lumumba, my father, and I want to be able to look them in the eye

I don't smoke or drink, but I will not tell you that I won't smoke again. Probably I will when I'm 60.

Africans should be talking and ask questions, like why does America and Russia have the right to veto votes? These countries talk about democracy and yet are not democratic themselves.

Now we have to understand that slavery would not have ended if it was left to the Africans alone, Now, Europe understood that what they were doing then was unjust, but imagine the propaganda from kings and queens of Europe to convince their people that we were cannibals, idol worshipers, horrible people, bastards, godless monkeys.

Someone asked me what legacy I wanted to leave and all my answers were so long that I even bored him. I said I don't care. Why should I? I will die someday. So if you like, remember me.

Before slavery, Africa had a culture. We had medicine and our cure for malaria. Slavery brought diseases that we were not used to slavery brought industry and people were criticizing industry way back as 2,000 years ago, that it was going to pollute the air, sea. Industry is not the way. We must deal with nature.

I think this my last album - No Place For My Dream - truly is my best work. My fear now is, I don't know if I can do better than this in my lifetime, because technically, sound quality, composition, the melody is really high standard, it's very scary the way it was recorded, the way I was focused. I think it is top of the music scene.

I know I trust people too much, although I try to be a bit firm, but it is a fault that we have learnt from my father.

I believe in the Creator. I don't believe the creator is God. If you change G-O-D the other way, it becomes dog.

My children think I'm the perfect father, but I try to bring them up to know that, 'when you are old enough you will find some faults in me, so keep an open mind.'