And I used to listen to a lot of jazz.

I was a shy little girl, nothing like what I am now.

Singing was the big focus and outlet for me.

Chick Corea was a great influence on me, musically, as I was growing up.

I face every project the same way - do it right and give 110%. 100% isn't good enough.

My family is very theatrical.

When I was five years old I knew I wanted to act.

I have to approach my life in this way so I can do what I need to do, and do it very well.

I hated stand-up.

Watched Star Wars in 77 and that's when I got into watching films. I was just blown away by it.

It's all about humanity, humility, and integrity.

People who don't use the tools given to them only injure themselves.

I've played piano and guitar when I was younger.

My driving force is spirituality.

I fit into the quirky, character class type of actor.

My older sister Nikki went to Hampton music school in Virginia, then to another school later in New York.

So many comics have such low self-esteem.

There is a class system in acting just like in anything else. Black females fall in a category below black male actors.

And I used to listen to a lot of jazz.

We always performed for our church, but we also just performed whenever the family got together.

I'm not the classic type - fair skin, very beautiful women of a classic type, I'm talking about now.

Voice is my instrument.

If you're going to do something, make it right and make it as good as you can. Don't waste anybody's time, especially your own.

I got an early education from television.

This business is all about being seen, and the more people see you the better.

The blues is the foundation, and it's got to carry the top. The other part of the scene, the rock 'n' roll and the jazz, are the walls of the blues.

What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man.

In my view a jazz musician is a great musician.

Words are the children of reason and, therefore, can't explain it. They really can't translate feeling because they're not part of it. That's why it bugs me when people try to analyze jazz as an intellectual theorem. It's not. It's feeling.

So our ears got used to listening to jazz in the place that it was that the bass player could not play. No one really realized it and really addressed it until the bass players who could play their instrument came along and started doing something with it.

It is veneer, rouge, aestheticism, art museums, new theaters, etc. that make America impotent. The good things are football, kindness, and jazz bands.

Humans are imperfect. That's one of the reasons that classical and jazz are in trouble. We're on the quest for the perfect performance and every note has to be right. Man, every note is not right in life.

I hate Stanley Clark, but I have to admit he's playing Jazz whether I like it or not.

I have to plead basic ignorance of most new jazz artists here.

If one takes all the styles in jazz harmonically from the earliest beginnings to the latest experiments, he still has a rather limited scope when compared to the rest of music in the world.

I don't know who's 18 years old today that, 20 years hence, is going to be a jazz fan.

I don't like freedom jazz - I think it's void of roots and void of foundation.

Jazz needs the help. It's the more sophisticated music. All the other music is on the TV, but jazz isn't.

I listened to Billie Holiday a lot in order to learn to sing. She remains one of the extraordinary jazz singers. But my intent is to become my own voice, to be able to interpret these songs in my own way.

I think what we need is a more welcoming mode from the people who put on a hundred million country-western shows on television. How about a monthly jazz show?

Life is a lot like jazz... it's best when you improvise.

I still love the whole history of jazz. The old things sound better than ever.

A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.

Jazz is a music of great achievements but speed and chops serve a different function in jazz.

I don't want to appear hostile, like I'm hostile to L.A. or that I feel that the people don't appreciate jazz. I don't think it's that. I think it's something more. It's something a little bit more complicated than that.

Eclecticism is the word. Like a jazz musician who creates his own style out of the styles around him, I play by ear.

People sometimes say it takes a long time to become a jazz fan, but for me it took about five seconds.

My brother had a big band in high school; after that we continued to play together, eventually forming a group called the Jazz Brothers, that recorded for Riverside Records.

Here in England we live at a slower pace, have more time to enjoy things - like good jazz.