I don't like to go to strange places.

It's a good time for black people to be alive.

Every day has its emotional difficulties. I miss my mother whether I'm singing her music or not.

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 school and my formal education ended.

You don't have to live next to me / Just give me my equality.

There are all kinds of things that can be done. You can change rhythms, you can change chords, you can change whole concepts. But it will only work, on a record or in a performance, if you can make the people buy it.

What kept me sane was knowing that things would change, and it was a question of keeping myself together until they did.