Quote collection
108 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"My people have very subtle slang, inflections and ways of saying things that has little to do with words. If you're from the same place, you'll feel the jargon and know exactly what's happening. Same with any neighborhood cat. What he sees and hears and feels and lives makes him what he is. That's what blues is."
"You can't be different if you look at it. Being gifted is different. I had that in my piano playing. I'm very thankful for that. I'm very aware of that. The style and what I fed is just me. I never worked at it. It just happened."
"I don't like drug addicts and she sounds like a cat."
"I only knew classical music, which to me was the only true music. The only way I could survive at the bar was to mix the classical music with popular songs, and that meant I had to sing. What happened was that I discovered I had a voice plus the talent to mix classical music together with more popular songs, which at the time I detested."
"It was always Marx, Lenin, and revolution - real girl's talk."
"I don't like rap music at all. I don't think it's music. It's just a beat and rapping."
"My job is not done. I address my songs now to the third world. I am popular all over Asia and Africa and the Middle East, not to speak of South Africa, where I'm trying to go to see Nelson Mandela."
"When I was studying... there weren't any black concert pianists. My choices were intuitive, and I had the technique to do it. People have heard my music and heard the classic in it, so I have become known as a black classical pianist."
"Tomorrow, I might be in a different mood and you wouldn't recognize my voice."
"The Beatles are lucky, very lucky. But what has happened to them has nothing to do with them, in a sense. They came along at the right time. Attention was focused on them. They've had the chance to grow in almost any direction they wanted. Very lucky. They are not exceptionally talented."
"Music is a gift and a burden I've had since I can remember who I was."
"It is difficult to retain your standards with the pressure of trying to make money, which always has its rules...It's hard to walk the tightrope of doing what you think is your best and making money at it."
"Music is one of the ways by which you can know everything which is going on in the world. You can feel... through music... Whew... you can feel the vibrations of everybody in the world at any given moment."
"I would like you to know, I am a doctor of music."
"I was not reluctant to become a singer. Singing has been an activity I've done my whole life, without thought."
"I would like a man now who is rich, and who can give me a boat - a sailboat. I want to own it and let him pay for it. My first love is the sea and water, not music. Music is second."
"From the beginning, it has been a no-no for a black man to touch a white woman."
"I don't like to go to strange places. I was in Italy for about five hours on my way to Africa."
"Since I was three I've been playing the piano. I've been onstage."
"I try to swim every damn day I can, and I've learned to scuba dive and snorkel."