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" It's very hard for me to place myself alongside another artist. Everyone has something unique to express. "

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" As I grow older, I hope I can fully embody my grandmother's remarkable peace. "

" No matter what happens, I can go back to the mountains. I have nature and my wonderful friends and neighbors. I get so much by being there. "

" I live just above a creek, and it's always very active. It almost sounds like the ocean. It's constant, and there's lots of big rocks in it, so it's got a great sound. It's one of my favorite things. "

" I've begun to realize, as I'm getting older, that I was taught to go for a certain kind of stillness to get things done. I missed that in my life. I loved my grandmother's property, out in South Georgia right above the Florida line, so I just thought I'd find some property where I could feel that again. "

" Salif Keita's one of my favorite artists. "

" I never left jazz. The relationship between structure and improvisation - that constant conversation and tension - I've always wanted in every genre and song that I perform. "

" I don't think words always lead to meaning, but the things you can create with them are still pretty amazing. I've been really into Joni Mitchell, for example, but I've also been into some studio stuff, like Bjork. "

" 'Salt' is like this snapshot in midair, an action shot. It's about my relationship with the church, the classical and choral music that I dealt with in school, and my new introduction to jazz. It's very hard for me to listen to from beginning to end, because I hear how lost I was. "

" I come from a family that has grown their own food from well into times of slavery, provided for themselves and people around them. So I found, through conversations about the earth and about the house with my neighbors, a lot of common ground. "

" There's a beautiful, kind of seductive trap in being autobiographical in our writing of songs: We just get stuck in our own syrup, and it's so personal that it almost can be embarrassing to the listener. "

" I always want to do good work and enjoy doing it. "

" I come from a lineage of ministers. "

" Where I come from, music is not a business. Sharing music is a business, but music is not a business. It comes from the people and belongs to the people. "

" Jazz has a lot to do with being very present. You know the structure, then you flow through it. "

" I'd been trained in choral, gospel, and a little bit of opera. "

" I know how to make myself comfortable. "

" I think, as singers and performers, we are ambassadors of the human experience. I don't want to get bored just talking about myself. "

" Jazz has provided the framework for all the other stuff that I've done. "

" We had no television, and I only heard the radio when my parents went out to a Bible study group. They liked a quiet, meditative house. "

" Music is primal: when it's done without pretension, you can really feel the shape of someone's soul. "

" The truth is, when you want a great show, it's not 'entertaining' the audience - it's you sharing with them... an experience of communion. "

" I call myself a singer-songwriter influenced by the gospel and jazz tradition. Naturally, because of my lifestyle and love for nature, there's a lot of folk and Americana there because that's just my life. "

" The whole musical institution of the church involves a lot of different styles of communication at the same time. Things like call and response. Sometimes they use the music to pray and work things out. And there's so much repetition in gospel, it's like churning butter. "

" A lot of people in the African-American community are raised by grandmothers, and that relationship is a special bond and circle. "

" I love singing all types of genres. "

" I'm kind of a subtle person. "

" I get bored very quickly. "

" For me, I just want to sing about life. And since I come from a spiritual background, I turned to jazz, because I feel it's still sacred, like gospel. It's serious music, but it allows room to sing about so much other stuff as well. "

" I let the song guide me. I move through the space that I'm given rather than trying to make an impression on the material. I'm curious to learn from the music. "

" I see 'Grace' as an affectionate refusal of things that just aren't true. With all our power and money and influence, we still can't raise up high over people's consciousness. "