I do love to sing Jacques Brel songs, intensely. I get terribly excited, just by reading a couple of lines in any one of his songs..

I'm a real rebel with a cause..

By the time I was eight I was taking classical piano lessons and I wanted to be a concert pianist. But that didn't work out. I graduated from high sc….

It was always Marx, Lenin, and revolution - real girl's talk..

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 Afric….

Greed has driven the world crazy. And I think I'm lucky that I have a place over here that I can call home..

Jazz is not just music, it's a way of life, it's a way of being, a way of thinking..

It's time to take a look at my failures and stop calling them successes. Now I can start working at something that can use me best..

Jazz is not just music, it's a way of life, it's a way of being, a way of thinking. . . . the new inventive phrases we make up to describe things - a….

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," a song that was written for Simone, she confronted the band's lead singer, Eric Burdon. "So you're the honky," she sa….

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….

I'm sorry that I did not become the world's first black classic pianist. I think I would have been happier..

I am particular about the seating of the audience - also about how much money they pay - but most of all where they are seated. If I am going to sing….

Talent is a burden not a joy. I am not of this planet. I do not come from you. I am not like you..

I would like you to know, I am a doctor of music..

That's a very high goal to have, study eight hours a day to be a concert pianist..

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. Attentio….

Since I was three I've been playing the piano. I've been onstage. My mother is an Evangelist and I used to play the piano at her revival meetings..

I don't like to go to strange places..

I can read and arrange, but I can't write..

I was always a politician from the day the civil rights people chose me as their protest singer..