Quotes from Jimmy Cliff

Beyond everything else, that's one of the things that kept us going, that keeps me going, you know, the eternal love, knowing that I am in the love of the all and all love is in me.

The music that I represent and helped to create and establish was born in Jamaica.

I wanted to travel the world - I don't how that idea got in my head, but I really wanted to see the world... towns, cities, countries, I wanted to see them all.

I've abused myself a lot over the years. But my voice is still intact - really, it's better.

The love is the part of us that can never go. It's the essence that was always there, so that can never go.

With acting, you have to become someone else. That's the fun part of it for me - to step outside of yourself and become a character. I guess being Jimmy Cliff is a little bit of a character, too.

And I keep on fighting for the things I want. Though I know that when you're dead you can't. But I'd rather be a free man in my grave, than living as a puppet or a slave.

I would love to see no more ghettos but the things is, there's no diplomacy in the ghetto. They want to tell you something, they tell you straight!

I have not become the artist I believe I am. I want to become a stadium act. I'm not done at all.

People might say, 'Jimmy Cliff, you've done a lot, achieved a lot. What more can you want?

If I could change one thing about myself... I would try to control my generosity.

I grew up twelve miles outside of Montego Bay. In my early teens, I went to Kingston. It was like a different planet for me. In the country, people are kind. In the city, people are hard an' cold, like the concrete and steel.

We need that expression. Whether we want to call it protest or not, we need to express and echo the echoes of the people. Artists need to do that.

Social justice has always been a part of my inspiration. For example, when the Vietnam War was going on, I wrote a song about that.

Someone like Katy Perry - I like her writing because I listen to music as a songwriter. I like a lot of her songs - like, 'Firework' is a song that I think I could write.

When I lived in the U.K., I recorded a lot of ska and rock-steady styles of Jamaican music. But people there weren't accepting it. So I began using a faster reggae beat.

Christian values were important at home. Cleanliness. Don't steal. Don't lie. Those were the rules, and they were strictly enforced. Especially the stealing and lying. When you broke the rules, you got a beating. I always broke the rules a lot.

It was one of my dreams as a child, growing up in my little village with my cousins. We used to walk together, and I used to say, when you look at the world map, 'This town is there, that town is there, that river is there.' I used to say, 'One day, I'm going to travel these places.'

I'm very attached to my family and protective of them and miss them, and that situation, my connection with that can make me become very vulnerable.

So as sure as the sun will shine,. I'm gonna get my share now of what's mine And then the harder they come the harder they'll fall, one and all.