Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" I had really great art classes. Really great art teachers. Arts played a very important role in having a place to express yourself uniquely. "

Related Quotes:

" I don't like a lot of monitors on stage. I like the real raw sound of the open piano. "

" I love to create something new every night onstage; that makes a big difference. "

" When I first heard Nina Simone, her naked truth shocked me. Whenever she sang, it felt like lightning bolts in my soul. Every song was like a movie, a unique and very different vignette. "

" I listen to music all the time, and a lot of the things I cover are the standards of my time, and they work for me. "

" I think that when I started singing, I didn't know what I wanted to do; I only knew what I didn't want to do. "

" Too many people judge a singer like Beyonce by what they see on the surface. Knowing the musicians she's worked with and how she works, I have a lot of respect for her. "

" Each project that you do is something you believe in for that moment in time. "

" I never looked or really believed that music should be categorized into particular genres. "

" Music is a conversation between the audience and me, and I love that about my profession. "

" The music we do is weaved together through stories and life experiences. When people come to hear us, I hope they are are uplifted and that we give them a lot to take home. "

" I lived in Los Angeles for a long time, and in a lot of ways, I felt like I lived in my car. "

" Some people think that all you do is record, and it's not the case. You take on other projects as well, and you have to live a little bit because it inspires your work. "

" I remember my grandmother used to always say, 'Don't put all your eggs in one basket.' But when I realized that music was inside of me, I decided I'm putting all my eggs in one basket. "

" If a song feels good to me, it's not very difficult to make it my own. "

" The way I look at it, people pay me to travel. Once we get to the stage, that part is easy. "

" I come from a family of musicians. "

" I love Denver. "

" My junior high school teacher, Bennie Williams, was really more than a music teacher. She taught us poetry. She helped us put on school shows. She did all these kinds of things to help us stand in each other's shoes, and it was a really powerful time. That's when I discovered that I could sing. "

" I knew what the story behind 'Dreams' was. It was about Stevie Knicks' relationship. But when I sing it, it's about sharing some sage advice with somebody. "

" My musical selections are a reflection of how I grew up. Because, back then, you could see Miles Davis and Ravi Shankar on the same stage. And nobody thought anything of it, other than the fact that it was great music. "

" Lizz Wright, we call her lovingly 'Amazing Grace.' She has a folk and gospel kind of approach to the music, and she writes beautiful lyrics and songs. She's like this balm that is really full and very rich and deep. "

" When I sing a song, I want someone to recognize 'Now that's Dianne singing that song.' "

" I'm always inspired to push forward. "

" My demographic is very broad. Once they come, they had an idea about jazz, and then they hear me, and they come back with sisters, brothers, and kids. My audience looks like America to me. "

" My life has been going in ways I never could have dreamed of - doing the closing celebration for the Olympic Games and being appointed the creative chair for jazz at the L.A. Philharmonic. So I've just decided I'll go with my flow and be very prepared. "

" My mother would say, 'Stay ready so you don't have to get ready.' I spent a lot of my early years preparing for beautiful moments that have unfolded in my life so far. "

" Now, jazz institutions are more readily available for young people, but for me, the institutions were the bands that I was in. When I worked with Clark Terry, that was the beginning of school for me, and Harry Belafonte and Sergio Mendes, they were all my universities. "

" One of the things that I love about Sarah Vaughan is that she was always very current. "

" When I found out how music made me feel and how my singing made other people feel, that's when I decided this is what I wanted to do. "

" My mother was actually born in Toledo and raised in Detroit. "