Musician

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.

You feel the shame, humiliation, and anger at being just another victim of prejudice, and at the same time, there's the nagging worry that maybe... you're just no good.

You feel the shame, humiliation, and anger at being just another victim of prejudice, and at the same time, there's the nagging worry that maybe... you're just no good.

All the time, there was the weight of my community's expectations on my shoulders.

The protest years were over, not just for me but for a whole generation, and in music, just like in politics, many of the greatest talents were dead or in exile, and their place was filled by third-rate imitators.

When I'm on that stage, I assume honor. I assume compensation, and I should.

Did you know that the human voice is the only pure instrument? That it has notes no other instrument has? It's like being between the keys of a piano. The notes are there, you can sing them, but they can't be found on any instrument. That's like me. I live in between this. I live in both worlds, the black and white world.

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 on top forever.

I have to be composed; I have to be poised. I have to remember what my first piano teacher told me: 'You do not touch that piano until you are ready and until they are ready to listen to you.

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 more important.

My daughter is in more competition with me. I never wanted to be bigger than my mother or to challenge her.

When I'm on that stage, I assume honor. I assume compensation, and I should.

I flirt all the time. I like men! I don't think we can do without them.

I try to swim every damn day I can, and I've learned to scuba dive and snorkel.

I wasn't a jazz player, but a classical musician, and I improvised arrangements of popular songs using classical motifs.

At this crucial time in our lives, when everything is so desperate, when every day is a matter of survival, I don't think you can help but be involved.

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

It's an artist's duty to reflect the times in which we live.

Did you know that the human voice is the only pure instrument? That it has notes no other instrument has? It's like being between the keys of a piano. The notes are there, you can sing them, but they can't be found on any instrument. That's like me. I live in between this. I live in both worlds, the black and white world.

From the beginning, it has been a no-no for a black man to touch a white woman.