Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" To me, we are the most beautiful creatures in the whole world. Black people. And I mean that in every sense. "

Related Quotes:

" The protest years were over, not just for me but for a whole generation, and in music, just like in politics, many of the greatest talents were dead or in exile, and their place was filled by third-rate imitators. "

" Did you know that the human voice is the only pure instrument? That it has notes no other instrument has? It's like being between the keys of a piano. The notes are there, you can sing them, but they can't be found on any instrument. That's like me. I live in between this. I live in both worlds, the black and white world. "

" As a political weapon, it has helped me for 30 years defend the rights of American blacks and third-world people all over the world, to defend them with protest songs. To move the audience to make them conscious of what has been done to my people around the world. "

" I think the rich will eventually have to cave in too, because the economic situation around the world is not gonna tolerate the United States being on top forever. "

" I think the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor. I don't think the black people are going to rise at all; I think most of them are going to die. "

" I'll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear. I mean really, no fear! "

" I'm not a blues singer, I'm a diva. "

" I have to be composed; I have to be poised. I have to remember what my first piano teacher told me: 'You do not touch that piano until you are ready and until they are ready to listen to you. "

" It's an artist's duty to reflect the times in which we live. "

" When I'm on that stage, I assume honor. I assume compensation, and I should. "

" I wasn't a jazz player, but a classical musician, and I improvised arrangements of popular songs using classical motifs. "

" Greed has driven the world crazy. And I think I'm lucky that I have a place over here that I can call home. "

" I had spent many years pursuing excellence, because that is what classical music is all about... Now it was dedicated to freedom, and that was far more important. "

" I think if I were over there in America, protest music would be more important. But I'm not going. "

" I want to shake people up so bad, that when they leave a nightclub where I've performed, I just want them to be to pieces. "

" When I was studying... there weren't any black concert pianists. My choices were intuitive, and I had the technique to do it. People have heard my music and heard the classic in it, so I have become known as a black classical pianist. "

" You feel the shame, humiliation, and anger at being just another victim of prejudice, and at the same time, there's the nagging worry that maybe... you're just no good. "

" I flirt all the time. I like men! I don't think we can do without them. "

" At this crucial time in our lives, when everything is so desperate, when every day is a matter of survival, I don't think you can help but be involved. "

" I think that the artists who don't get involved in preaching messages probably are happier - but you see, I have to live with Nina, and that is very difficult. "

" I don't like rap music at all. I don't think it's music. It's just a beat and rapping. "

" I'm a real rebel with a cause. "

" My daughter is in more competition with me. I never wanted to be bigger than my mother or to challenge her. "

" The worst thing about that kind of prejudice... is that while you feel hurt and angry and all the rest of it, it feeds you self-doubt. You start thinking, perhaps I am not good enough. "

" Desegregation is a joke. "

" I didn't get interested in music. It was a gift from God. "

" Once I understood Bach's music, I wanted to be a concert pianist. Bach made me dedicate my life to music, and it was that teacher who introduced me to his world. "

" What I was interested in was conveying an emotional message, which means using everything you've got inside you sometimes to barely make a note, or if you have to strain to sing, you sing. "

" From the beginning, it has been a no-no for a black man to touch a white woman. "

" There's no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were. "