Musician

I think that the artists who don't get involved in preaching messages probably are happier - but you see, I have to live with Nina, and that is very difficult.

What I was interested in was conveying an emotional message, which means using everything you've got inside you sometimes to barely make a note, or if you have to strain to sing, you sing.

I want to shake people up so bad, that when they leave a nightclub where I've performed, I just want them to be to pieces.

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.

You get racism crossing the street; it's in the very fabric of American society.

Desegregation is a joke.

To me, we are the most beautiful creatures in the whole world. Black people. And I mean that in every sense.

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

I think the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor. I don't think the black people are going to rise at all; I think most of them are going to die.

Sometimes I sound like gravel, and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream.

Once I understood Bach's music, I wanted to be a concert pianist. Bach made me dedicate my life to music, and it was that teacher who introduced me to his world.

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

This may be a dream, but I'll say it anyway: I was supposed to be married last year, and I bought a gown. When I meet Nelson Mandela, I shall put on this gown and have the train of it removed and put aside, and kiss the ground that he walks on and then kiss his feet.

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

I didn't get interested in music. It was a gift from God.

I'll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear. I mean really, no fear!

I think the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor. I don't think the black people are going to rise at all; I think most of them are going to die.

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.

Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.