"I feel now that music is my destiny. Not that I am some divine instrument with something great to offer humanity, but simply that I would be a fool to spend too much of my life doing something else."

November 1983

"First snow tonight in New Haven. Although it is 1:30 a.m. it looks like dawn outside. Everything white with snow falling and fallen. I'm in the living room of my apartment and have just lit a candle. I'm trying to figure out what to do with my life that will let me make the music I like and a minimum amount of money." *** "The snow has turned to rain outside. Life is so short."

December 1984

"I'm living in the Mission Hill area of Boston now with two other guys. The second roommate I found by placing an ad: 'No smoking, no pets, no pretentious people. Must like James Brown!"

February 1986

"In African music class, every time I get a new series of patterns down on a particular drum, before I get too proud of myself, a new window opens up revealing how much farther there is still to go. Every time I begin to see my current goal clearly, I realize that I am just seeing the surface. That behind it, deep in the center, I can just barely make out my new goal."

November 1986