“What is love but a prelude to sorrow with heartache ahead for your goal.”

I’m a real rebel with a cause.

When a child is gifted, people try to help that child.

Theory and harmony broadened my mind in music. I know what music is made of.

How do you explain what it feels like to get on the stage and make poetry that you know sinks into the hearts and souls of people who are unable to express it.

Talent is a burden not a joy. I am not of this planet. I do not come from you. I am not like you.

I know I’m different, but I don’t think about it.

I was not reluctant to become a singer. Singing has been an activity I’ve done my whole life, without thought.

Music is the center of my life.

That’s a very high goal to have, study eight hours a day to be a concert pianist.

Jazz is not just music, it’s a way of life, it’s a way of being, a way of thinking the new inventive phrases we make up to describe things – all that to me is jazz just as much as the music we play.

Slavery has never been abolished from America’s way of thinking.

I believe in racial memory too. I’m sure I’ve got ancient African blood in me that has something to do with what I am.

It is difficult to retain your standards with the pressure of trying to make money, which always has its rules. It’s hard to walk the tightrope of doing what you think is your best and making money at it.

I demand perfection in what I do, and I practice very hard before I give a concert-sometimes three to six hours a day.

I made wine from the lilac tree/Put my heart in its recipe/It makes me see what I want to see/And be what I want to be.

It’s a good time for black people to be alive.

Let us set our goals too high; let us demand more of ourselves than we believe we possess.

My goal in a couple of years is to try to build a successful fashion house like Armani or Versace. I want that more than anything.

Set goals – high goals for you and your organization. When your organization has a goal to shoot for, you create teamwork, people working for a common good.

I want to elongate my cricketing career as a consistent player. I have personal goals I would like to achieve someday.

The goal of socialism is communism.

Many discouraging hours will arise before the rainbow of accomplished goals will appear on the horizon.

I told them my system was based on the “ant plan,” that I’d gotten the idea watching a colony of ants in Africa during the war. A whole bunch of ants working toward a common goal.

You can accomplish virtually any goal you set for yourself, as long as the goal is clear and you persist long enough.