The Beautiful Ones

by Prince

Today having a persona is considered more or less essential to superstardom; for Prince, it was inseparable from his identity as an artist.

“Music is healing,” he said. “Write that down first.” This was to be our guiding principle. “Music holds things together.”

“If I want this book to be about one overarching thing,” Prince told me that day, “it’s freedom. And the freedom to create autonomously. Without anyone telling you what to do or how or why.”