You can't help it. An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times.

I try to swim every damn day I can, and I've learned to scuba dive and snorkel.

I feel what they feel. And people who listen to me know that, and it makes them feel like they're not alone.

I was reared in the church from the age of three. I've played piano since I was three. I performed at revivals and for my people around North Carolina for several years. People around town collected money to send me to school.

I can read and arrange, but I can't write.

We have ordered things so long in a certain way, we are numb. Nobody dares question it. This is what is wrong, symbolically, with America.

There's no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were.