What impressed me most about New York were its huge apartment houses.

Basically there is no difference between whites and blacks, browns and yellows. I decided to think no more of people as Northerners and Southerners.

Whenever I played Columbus, Ohio, I dropped in to see my close friend, a medium who had mysterious powers. Her Indian guide was Mohawk.

We are all gifted. That is our inheritance.

We never had a bathtub. Mom would bathe me in the wooden or tin washtub in the kitchen, or in a big lard can.

I am somebody cause God don't make no junk

Many people know how to criticize, but few know how to praise.

Only those who are being burned know what fire is like.

Today or any day that phone may ring and bring good news.

There was one emotional outlet my people always had when they had the blues. That was singing.

All the men in my life have been two things: an epic and an epidemic.

Do not allow yourself to act according to the flesh

If I go back to the beginning, I could start it over again. I could go line by line; try and find a shorter way. I could try to make it... better.

You preferred to be a lunatic, a minority of one.

I had travelled pretty widely around the world even before then, so I knew where to go to film wildlife.

The commitment of giving your best at all times, in all circumstances and under all conditions, can enable you to find value in, and lend value to, every experience.

And I like to interpret music. So I think it's all interpretive.

I mope around less. It is horrible. I miss it.

Inside all of us is... hope. Inside all of us is... fear. Inside all of us is... adventure. Inside all of us is a wild thing.

I like auditioning. I like working on material. I just love working.

Lots of white people think black people are stupid. They are stupid themselves for thinking so, but regulation will not make them smarter.