When I was studying... there weren't any black concert pianists. My choices were intuitive, and I had the technique to do it. People have heard my music and heard the classic in it, so I have become known as a black classical pianist.

Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.

The allusion was that I was actually naked. I loved that. It always, kind of shocked people enough that they became mine immediately.

I was not reluctant to become a singer. Singing has been an activity I've done my whole life, without thought.

Anything human can be felt through music, which means that there is no limit to the creating that can be done with music. You can take the same phrase from any song and cut it up so many different ways - it's infinite. It's like God... you know?

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

The worst thing about that kind of prejudice... is that while you feel hurt and angry and all the rest of it, it feeds you self-doubt. You start thinking, perhaps I am not good enough.