I believe the time will come when the whole definition of pop music will change. It will get to the point where a song will not be a good song until it has a high level of creativity in writing and performance. In other words, in order to be popular, songs will have to meet these high standards.

To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that's not what I play. I play black classical music.

Talent is a burden not a joy. I am not of this planet. I do not come from you. I am not like you.

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.

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

The pressure of show business is on all the time and show business is a fickle business. Whatever is popular now - that's all that counts. I have to constantly re-identify myself to myself, reactivate my own standards, my own convictions about what I'm doing and why.

I'm sorry that I did not become the world's first black classic pianist. I think I would have been happier.