I'm not messing around with nobody's woman. If I want a woman I go get her - you know what I mean?

I used to enjoy all the white bands when I was a kid listening to the radio. But the record companies, they take music and label it - like, they say "rock". Because the white singers can't sound like James Brown, they call him "soul". They've been doing that for years. That's the prejudice crap.

It's always been a gift with me, hearing music the way I do. I don't know where it comes from, it's just there and I don't question it.

Music is the framework around the silence.

Americans don't like any form of art, man. All they like to do is make money. They don't like me, Sammy Davis, or anybody else. They don't like nothing. They just like Sammy because he can make 'em a lot of money.

Good music is good no matter what kind of music it is.

In high school I was best in music class on the trumpet, but the prizes went to the boys with blue eyes. I made up my mind to outdo anybody white on my horn.