"We asserted ourselves as a music community, and showed legislators that music is positive. Especially if you've sold 300 million records worldwide and pay taxes"

"Music is my religion"

"Music is the shorthand of emotion"

"A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm"

"To separate children from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone"

"My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary"

"Creating the kind of connections between people that lead to collective civic action, political expression, community dialogue, shared cultural experiences"

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away"

"Music is the universal language of mankind"

"All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff"

"No, I don't belong to a retirement community"