Quotes from Jimmy Cliff

It's important for me to go back into the ghetto, where I'm from. I still get my oxygen from there. I don't live in the ghetto anymore, but every time I go back, I'm still seeing the same things that I lived.

I visit studios. Just to get the feel, the smell, and see what other people are doing. Not only listening to the radio, but going to studios, greeting musicians and artists, just getting a vibe.

I'm the kind of person who likes to hang out and observe what's going on in the streets, or in certain places. I used to do that a lot. But having to become an international superstar, I can't do that comfortably! But it's all positive, you know.

I am not one of those artists who is cemented in one way. I am able to, you know, make the happy, jovial, lighthearted music too. We need that in life too. So it's like that to me.

I'm an artist. And I'm happy that I was there at the commencement of this music, this Jamaican music, to put my contribution and help to establish it.

I'd rather be a free man in my grave than living as a puppet or a slave.

Good thinking brings good feeling and good feeling brings good thinking.

Since we're coming into a rebirth, and there's a consciousness of health, because the disease that is death, we are able to overcome that.

Got your mind set on a dream, you can get it though how hard it may seem.

If you go out to Hollywood you'll find a lot of fantastic plastic people there in the business and a lot of people in life generally. They find it so hard to be themselves that they have to be plastic.

I have a career, which is important, but my family is the priority. First family, and then career. It's a delicate balance.

Everyone needs to realize why am I here? It comes in everyone's life; you ask why am I here? What am I doing? Once you are able to answer that question for yourself honestly, you have smooth sailing.

I think we all have a role to play in life.

As sure as the sun will shineI'm going to get it, what's mineAnd then the harder they comeThe harder they fall,One and all.

I used to do a little acting in school. It was my first love, and I really thought I would be doing it as a career. I really wanted to complete that part of my ambition.

People in the Hall of Fame tend to clap their hands and say, 'OK, I've done it all,' but for me, it was a new beginning.

The first thing I wanted to be was an actor, even before I wanted to be a singer, before I discovered I could sing.

I grew up in the church and had always questioned what they were telling me.

There are goals that I had set out for myself as an artist. I have accomplished some of them - becoming accepted all over the world - however, other parts of my goals have not been completed.

My most important relationships were with my father and grandmother.

Basically, I'm motivated to write about sociopolitical issues as well as relationships. I think those themes have stayed with me throughout my life.

I love to create and that's what gives my soul the satisfaction.

I regret I didn't ever learn how to fly a plane. I had the opportunity when I started to make some money, and I regret I didn't really take the time out and put the effort in and do that.

In hindsight, I see the great value of family and how it moulded my life and kept me together. So now family means everything to me.