George Clinton

“Once you get to 22 or 23, you're already old school. It's the bubblegum ones that buy records, have fun, party. You get older, you get sophisticated, and you don't go buy no records too much.”

“Hip-hop is getting to the point now where they are going to start sounding like Al Jarreau or Bobby McFerrin or some of the other poets. Some of the better rappers can rap real fast without even melodies. It'll get to that same point.”

“If you got maggots in your brain, everything you think is gonna be rotten.”

“And I always say, when Southern people get on the dance floor, they ain't getting off.”

“I was at the Apollo Theater all the time, skipping school, and I worked in a barbershop. That's how I started with doo-wop. Now I've come full circle. I did all kinds of music. I used to work on Broadway and Tin Pan Alley.”

“I feel lucky and blessed that I got away with the things that I did do. But there's got to be an easier way to do that. I guess people have to go through whatever their time requires them to go through and if they can see it as inspiration, you know, fine. But I'm not taking no blame for it.”

“The Mothership is in the Smithsonian now. That's probably one of the biggest displays there.”

“Style is whatever you want to do, if you can do it with confidence.”

“I'm always surprised that I'm still around funk and that people are still into it.”

“My mother gave me the discipline to follow my dreams. You know: you can do what you want as long as you put your back into it. Just keep ploughing away.”

“Once you reach a certain age with radio stations, you've got to be an oldie but a goodie. If you wanna do something new, you've got to find a new way to present it to people.”

“I'm not worried about no charts or how long it's been out. Our records never go away.”

“When I'm just tryna funk, it's gonna be the Staple Singers, man - Pop Staples. And Ray Charles. Ray could take 'Eleanor Rigby' and make that funky.”

“Well, I try to be as funky as I need to get.”

“I save all the energy until I get on the stage and then I have a burst of energy and look like I've been jamming all day long. But other than that, I'm a granddad, great granddad.”

“If some people don't like funk music then it's just the wrong time for them. They will get it. It's addictive.”

“I think a lot of people really have religious overtones of having come from somewhere. I mean, even the whole concept of religion is kind of alien.”

“The words I use too often are X-rated, something an old man like me shouldn't be talking about anyway.”

“Record companies would rather you stay dumb, not even think of it as a business, so they can either rip you off or get you out of the way in five years to make way for the new groups.”

“You can rebel against everything adults say. When I want to find out what the new music is, I find out what parents hate.”