When one has seen something of the world and human nature, one must conclude, after all, that between people in like stations of life there is very little difference the world over.

Amsterdam was a great surprise to me. I had always thought of Venice as the city of canals; it had never entered my mind that I should find similar conditions in a Dutch town.

I thought of Paris as a beauty spot on the face of the earth, and of London as a big freckle.

This country can have no more democracy than it accords and guarantees to the humblest and weakest citizen.

And so for a couple of years my life was divided between my music and my school books.

At a very early age I began to thump on the piano alone, and it was not long before I was able to pick out a few tunes? I also learned the names of the notes in both clefs, but I preferred not be hampered by notes.

But I must own that I also felt stirred by an unselfish desire to voice all the joys and sorrows, the hopes and ambitions, of the American Negro, in classic musical form.