Maybe if I go far enough back into my ancestry, I have African roots or something. I've got no idea.

I've never stopped learning.

The Stones are a different kind of group. I realized that when I joined them. It's not really so much their musical ability, it's just they have a certain kind of style and attitude which is unique.

I do to keep things sounding fresh. Sometimes just changing the running order of the show is a good idea.

I was very influenced by Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, both of whom I had the pleasure of playing with and becoming friends with.

I've written lots of songs on the piano. My mother had a piano and it was the first instrument I played.

I never advise anyone to sacrifice something else because of music, but then I don't see why they would have to anyway.

What I've always lacked is a really strong band to back me up.

I had to learn chord shapes. I bought books with chord charts. I used to listen to all kinds of pop music.

I'm sure if we had made an album that was more traditional would have been released immediately. When we actually play this music on stage and people become familiar with it, it will become more popular.

I do remember actually learning chords to Beatles songs. I thought they were great songwriters.

It's frustrating actually, the time involved in getting something released these days. My new CD has actually been finished for a year. It's only now that it's being released.

I have a really good band, and just returned from a short tour in California. It hasn't always gone that well.

I suppose because I have a good ear, I could pick out harmonies and learn by ear. I still think that you have to have an ear for music to really be able to feel and understand what you're playing. You can learn by watching and listening to other people.

I didn't think of myself as a lead player, especially when we did live shows, because me and Keith used to switch around all the time. He'd take a lead, I'd play rhythm. Sometimes even within one song. It wasn't strict and regimented.

I certainly want to get back to the U.S. to play. It's such a big country. I've always liked playing there, and enjoyed living there. I lived in New York, LA, and Florida.

The Stones don't really need to do it for money, so they must get some kind of pleasure out of it. They're not like a group that's disbanded and gone away and made a comeback. They've always been there.

It's nice to finally have a CD out which reflects my songwriting, my singing and the band that I have.

I play the piano a lot at home. I write songs on the piano and guitar. I would like to actually play piano on stage. I don't think I'll get the chance for a while.

It's sometimes impossible to fit in all the music we want to fit in, in an hour and 45 minute show.

Altamont... I remember all of that. That was an awful day.

Blues music is becoming more and more popular than it ever was. I'm always meeting people on the road that are really young, and are guitar players. male and female.

I don't know why, but I never felt I was gonna stay with the Stones forever, even right from the beginning.

If it wasn't for Mick, the group would've fallen apart a long time ago.

If you've been playing for a few years, especially in a group context, you'll see if you have the ability or the passion to want to carry on. It's something that you have to be dedicated to and you've got to love, no matter what happens.

Maybe if I go far enough back into my ancestry, I have African roots or something. I've got no idea.

The Beatles and The Stones were basically inspired by American Rhythm and Blues.

These days there's so much technology and ways you can learn. There are videos and CD roms.

It's not rubbish to say that I was a bit peeved about not getting credit for a couple of songs, but that wasn't the whole reason. I guess I just felt like I had enough. I decided to leave and start a group with Jack Bruce.

The Blues scene now is international. In the '50s it was purely something that you would hear in black clubs, played by black musicians, especially in America. But from the '60s onwards it changed.

The most important thing is to follow your instinct and get involved with some friends who have similar tastes and aspirations and like music as much as you do.

To be a slaveholder meant one had to regard the African American as inferior in every way.

There is no way that we know what is going on between the African American and the Asian American. We don't understand what an Indigenous American is. We don't understand what a Latino American is.

Without Social Security, poverty rates for African American seniors would more than double.

It's a pity one can't imagine what one can't compare to anything. Genius is an African who dreams up snow.

It is up to African leaders to show their will and political courage in order to assure that this new pan-African institution becomes an efficient instrument and not a place for endless discussions.

Because I don't play guitar any more, African harmonies and rhythms have been an inspiration to me. I love the raw origin of the sound. It complements my voice and words naturally.

I say that I represent this movement because my intellectual allegiances are clearly European, not African.

I have a very personal interest. I am a Miami-Dade voter. One of the issues is that my vote and so many other votes of women and African Americans in Florida are being discounted or discarded. I want my vote to count.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs, have played an important role in enriching the lives of not just African Americans, but our entire country.

When I became a director, I wanted to convince a very reluctant Sidney into allowing me to go on the journey of his life. Sidney had gone ahead of every other African American actor.

I think one of the political problems we have in this country is the perspective that all soccer moms think alike, all African-Americans think alike.

The adoring crowds and overwhelming Democratic support in the 2008 election was based largely on joy at jettisoning Bush and the appeal of electing a superbly qualified charismatic African American leader.

My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.

Since 1957, black people have experienced double-digit unemployment - in good times and bad times. Look at the population of African Americans in prison. They represent more than half the population of prisoners in the country, 55 percent of those on death row.

Eight generations of African-Americans are still waiting to achieve their rights - compensation and restitution for the hundreds of years during which they were bought and sold on the market.

An important aspect of the current situation is the strong social reaction against suggestions that the home language of African American children be used in the first steps of learning to read and write.

A genocide in Africa has not received the same attention that genocide in Europe or genocide in Turkey or genocide in other part of the world. There is still this kind of basic discrimination against the African people and the African problems.

Whether or not all this came to pass in an East African ditch, I wouldn't like to say. Perhaps it happened in North Africa or further west, but Africa was definitely the place.