“The best thing you can do is to be a woman and stand before the world and speak your heart.”

There are men and women still on the streets, and that’s all they are saying Can you spare a quarter? I come from a crowd of people who were current on the outlook on life, who were social and knew where they were and had some input into how things seemed to be.

Sing a song correctly and you live forever.

You can never loose a thing If it belongs to you.

I am the first instrument. I am the voice. I do not imitate other instruments. Other instruments imitate me.

I think that’s what really a substantial work is, it’s forever. It’s the truth now and it was the truth then, and it will be the truth tomorrow.

It’s a spirit that was given me and the relationships and meeting all these great people, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong; through Max I met a lot of people too. My first album was with Benny Carter.

I don’t have to lay on the couch and see a therapist because my therapist is in my paint brushes.

If they can afford what I ask, it’s not as much as Madonna makes; not that I want what Madonna makes, but I was saying.

But I’ve been there and done that. I’m not trying to prove anything to anybody, and if somebody wants me to come.

We have inherited a great music. This music is a holdover. It comes with us like the skin, the texture of our hair. It’s our memory banks.

I was looking for the people who were making the music inside the cabinet. I would look in there and see if I could find somebody who was making all this wonderful music.