And that's the soulful thing about playing: you offer something to somebody. You don't know if they'll like it, but you offer it.

The soul gives us resilience - an essential quality since we constantly have to rebound from hardship.

Many heroic things happened during slavery. And remember that there was a national movement away from it even at the time. The era of Reconstruction and then the subsequent dismantling of Reconstruction sent us in a tailspin. Then we had the Civil Rights movement. Now we have our first non-white president. We have a pattern of moving apart and then coming back together throughout the history of this country. Each time, we come closer.

My mother always took my brothers and me to music lessons. There were six children. Our parents attended our concerts and encouraged us to study and enjoy many different types of music.

New Orleans - the real New Orleans - is the soul of the country.

I try to put a lot of our music in my music - by that I mean of American music.

Ethics are more important than laws.