It is difficult to retain your standards with the pressure of trying to make money, which always has its rules...It's hard to walk the tightrope of doing what you think is your best and making money at it.

Desegregation is a joke.

I believe in racial memory too. I'm sure I've got ancient African blood in me that has something to do with what I am.

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.

Music is the center of my life.

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

That's a very high goal to have, study eight hours a day to be a concert pianist.