Desegregation is a joke..

It doesn't matter to me what is going on today because my music encompasses every kind of mood that exists in human beings. That's my stick..

The allusion was that I was actually naked. I loved that. It always, kind of shocked people enough that they became mine immediately..

There's no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were..

As far as piano players are concerned, Oscar Peterson is my very favorite. I also like McCoy Tyner. I think that the big jazz stars, both now and in ….

I had spent many years pursuing excellence, because that is what classical music is all about... Now it was dedicated to freedom, and that was far mo….

When a child is gifted, people try to help that child..

Every day has its emotional difficulties. I miss my mother whether I'm singing her music or not..

I do not believe in mixing of the races. You can quote me. I don't believe in it, and I never have. I've never changed. I've never changed my hair. I….

Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing..

I think the rich will eventually have to cave in too, because the economic situation around the world is not gonna tolerate the United States being o….

I don't like rap music at all. I don't think it's music. It's just a beat and rapping..

Funk, gospel, blues is all out of slavery times, out of depression, out of sorrow..

We have ordered things so long in a certain way, we are numb. Nobody dares question it. This is what is wrong, symbolically, with America..

Through music you can become sad, joyful, loving, you can learn. You can learn mathematics, touch, pacing... Oh my God! Ooh... Wow... You can see col….

My singing, if you want to call it that is merely another medium of expression. Just an instrument I play. That's how I see my voice..

Slavery has never been abolished from America's way of thinking..

I love to travel to hear different kinds of music..

I'm just human, I have faults like anyone.

I made wine from the lilac tree/Put my heart in its recipe/It makes me see what I want to see/And be what I want to be.

I believe in racial memory too. I'm sure I've got ancient African blood in me that has something to do with what I am..