Desegregation is a joke.

Greed has driven the world crazy. And I think I'm lucky that I have a place over here that I can call home.

I think if I were over there in America, protest music would be more important. But I'm not going.

I don't like rap music at all. I don't think it's music. It's just a beat and rapping.

The worst thing about that kind of prejudice... is that while you feel hurt and angry and all the rest of it, it feeds you self-doubt. You start thinking, perhaps I am not good enough.

Desegregation is a joke.

From the beginning, it has been a no-no for a black man to touch a white woman.

I think the rich will eventually have to cave in too, because the economic situation around the world is not gonna tolerate the United States being on top forever.

Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.

I'm a real rebel with a cause.

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

When I was studying... there weren't any black concert pianists. My choices were intuitive, and I had the technique to do it. People have heard my music and heard the classic in it, so I have become known as a black classical pianist.

I had spent many years pursuing excellence, because that is what classical music is all about... Now it was dedicated to freedom, and that was far more important.

I think the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor. I don't think the black people are going to rise at all; I think most of them are going to die.

I would like a man now who is rich, and who can give me a boat - a sailboat. I want to own it and let him pay for it. My first love is the sea and water, not music. Music is second.

To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that's not what I play. I play black classical music.

There's no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were.

Once I understood Bach's music, I wanted to be a concert pianist. Bach made me dedicate my life to music, and it was that teacher who introduced me to his world.

This may be a dream, but I'll say it anyway: I was supposed to be married last year, and I bought a gown. When I meet Nelson Mandela, I shall put on this gown and have the train of it removed and put aside, and kiss the ground that he walks on and then kiss his feet.

I try to swim every damn day I can, and I've learned to scuba dive and snorkel.

Funk gospel blues is all out of slavery times out of depression out of sorrow.

Youve got to learn to leave the table when loves no longer being served.

It's logical that people from bad times will reflect their feelings in their communication. Music is part of the communication. If you lived it, you can do it.

It is my belief that all gods are stories, or at least the ideas behind stories, but stories or ideas that have become in some way almost alive and aware.

I moved to San Francisco to work at Apple's Cupertino office in the summer of 2006, then stayed on remotely in a part-time job back in Austin. It was an internship with iTunes. I helped them launch new features as well as new marketing programs. I also helped program the iTunes Store every week, working on which artists and albums got featured.

To reduce this claim of slavery to an absurdity, it is only necessary to add that there are only two states in which slaves are a majority, and not one in which the slaveholders are not a very disproportionate minority.

Evil is often supposed to be without rhyme or reason.

My yesterdays walk with me. They keep step, they are gray faces that peer over my shoulder.

The best time for you to hold your tongue is the time you feel you must say something or bust.

The Devil makes work for idle hands to do

I love escaping into film, because everyday life I find quite troublesome. So any excuse to go into a cinema and say goodbye to the world for a couple of hours, or in a book or whatever, is great.

Isn't it ironic that pay, perks, and benefits all cost your company at the bottom line, but authentic recognition, especially when it's most unexpected, costs very little and gives the most impressive return on investment?

The distance between you and me disappears with us.

One of my favorite films is 'Dumb and Dumber.'

Designing bridal is perfect for me, because black is my least favorite color, if you could call it a color.

I'm really grateful for my dancers' discipline.

Never say never, for if you live long enough, chances are you will not be able to abide by the simplest of such injunctions.

Friendship is a sheltering tree.

I've been bragging for over 25 years that my first New York Times bestseller was a book I copied from the U.S. Government Printing Office!

I grew up with a lot of people who are famous now. I was friends with Hilary and Haley Duff. They are such lovely girls. I have watched their careers blossom, which I am really happy for. I grew up with Ashley Tisdale; we used to both live in Valencia, so we used to hang out back in the day.

The Teacher provides Spiritual Energy Just like roots provide nutrients to the flowers

I think that kids need to grow up watching what I grew up watching - great entertainment; you know, Judy Garland and all these musicals that bring song and dance and acting all together in a polished way.

The thirst of desire is never filled, nor fully satisfied.

An appearance of delicacy, and even fragility, is almost essential to beauty.

Steakhouses sort of have this old-school nature to them; they're like museums full of good food. It's fun hearing the waiter share his expertise on the different cuts of beef and how they're going to cut up your baked potato.

Within the process of filming, unexpected situations occur.

New Year's Eve was always a big occasion at home with the family. Every year we would get the karaoke machine out and I'd entertain everyone, even as a young kid.