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

How do you explain what it feels like to get on the stage and make poetry that you know sinks into the hearts and souls of people who are unable to express it

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," a song that was written for Simone, she confronted the band's lead singer, Eric Burdon. "So you're the honky," she said, "who stole my song and got a hit out of it?

It's time to take a look at my failures and stop calling them successes. Now I can start working at something that can use me best.

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.

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

I feel more alive now than I ever have in my life. I have a chance to live, as I've dreamed.