Everything I do is collaborative. It's just my way. I'm really very interested in how the other musicians perceive the song.

I cringed when I heard myself described as a Jazz singer. I've always thought of myself as a Jazz vocalist.

Being black, I'm involved in the reparations movement. It's focused toward the African-American audience. We could begin to heal.

Miles Davis was doing something inherently African, something that has to do with all forms of American music, not just jazz.

I was never interested in singing in the church or school. I was more interested in becoming a musician.

My grandmother sang, too, and she was really loud. It was this wild kind of singing. I count her among my influences.

My father had all kinds of instruments in the house that he would hide from my mother. He bought them through mail order!

Miles Davis was a master. In every phase of his career, he understood that this music was a tribute to the African muse.

I'm always imagining some sort of story behind the song, even the ones I haven't written. I'm actively engaging in playacting.

I'm always looking for ways to develop as a Jazz artist, to find different ways of using my voice.

Here, in this quiet place we own, worlds are born.

The weaknesses of the wise are better than the strengths of fools.

Your soul is a precious gift from an imaginative loving Source that endlessly breathes life.

When someone gives you advice, just ask them to give it in writing and they will either keep mum or will run from there.

For the poison of hatred seated near the heart doubles the burden for the one who suffers the disease; he is burdened with his own sorrow, and groans on seeing another's happiness.

Some values must be universal, like human rights and the equal worth of every human being.

Let's hook up and just bring fiery death.

Business and its logic of productivity have become the reference point in a society that thinks marketing every time it opens its mouth.

I'm intensely anxious to preserve the freedom that gives you the right to think and to act and to talk as you please. That I think is essential to happiness and the life of the people.

You can always find some expert who will say something hopelessly hopeless about anything.

You have to be willing to have the decision-making follow the data.