Quotes from Taj Mahal

I was always taught that Latin, Caribbean people were cousins to me, as well as blues was a cousin to me, as well as Africans were direct relatives to me. It was all a part of my language.

It's pretty exciting. An honorary doctorate of the arts. It doesn't get any better.

I haven't worn one for a long time, but I look pretty good in a suit.

As a solo performer, it's total involvement. What I do is to break down the wall between audience and performer.

My parents grew up during the Harlem renaissance.

No matter what went down, music was always going to be a part of my life. What ultimately happened is that, over a period of time, I just kind of looked around and when like, 'Wow! I'm actually making a living doing this.'

I've only been on MTV once as one of their 'Closet Classics,' with some bootleg footage of a 1970 tour I did in Holland. They didn't know what to make of my music, but they finally invented a name for it - world beat music.

My music is really fun music, with some pan-African and pan-American influences.

American music is a powerful ingredient in international music, and as much as it comes from within, it also comes from without.

I didn't want to fall into the trap of complacency.

It's very interesting, the dynamics of popularity. When you do something all the time, you don't worry about whether it's trendy or not.

As a youngster, my parents made me aware that all that was from the African Diaspora belonged to me. So I came in with Caribbean music, African music, Latin music, gospel music and blues.

I see myself as a composer who plays music and likes to play with other people, and not just as a solo artist.

We return to you, O earth, the things which you have given us willingly and most graciously; with our hearts, hands and minds, in the best way we know how.

I'm doing exactly what I always wanted to do, and I still like what I can do musically.

I don't care if it's somebody else's song. Most of the time, you'll find that I'll put my own stamp on it. But I started writing more because, you know, it's easy to regurgitate what somebody else is doing, but it's exciting to be able to come up with your own writing.

All the music that I play today, I actually heard either at home or in my neighborhood when I was growing up in the '40s and '50s.

My grandmother had many children. She lost most. So when we came along, we were really special. I was the first grandchild that could see her spirit moving to a new generation.

In looking out into the world, it didn't look all that nice out there. And who were the nice people? Certainly Mahatma Gandhi was.

If the Rolling Stones are playing a concert across town, that's not my audience anyways. But I do find that there's a lot of people coming back around to see me again.

Naw, it - it never stops, man... You gotta be doing what you're supposed to be doing - whenever, however it's coming down, you know. If you're getting your butt kicked - you still gotta do what you gotta be doing.

Very old music is, like, 11th century in my mind. That's very old.

I came up not understanding that a lot of people didn't start to hear music until they went to college or were turned on by an older brother or sister.

What you have to understand is that blues... it's in a line from the oldest forms of African music. If you're playing it like it's an echo of the past, it would be a lot less exciting, but this music lives today.