21 Quotes by Abbey Lincoln

I think that's what really a substantial work is, it's forever. It's the truth now and it was the truth then, and it will be the truth tomorrow.

Sing a song correctly and you live forever.

I was in New York, miserable because I was working supper clubs but I wasn't expressing myself. I was really unhappy with my life. I saw Max Roach again and he told me I didn't have to do things like that. He made me an honest woman on the stage. I have been performing in that tradition since. I feel that I'm a serious performer now whereas then I wanted to be but I didn't know how.

The best thing you can do is to be a woman and stand before the world and speak your heart.

There's nothing to scream about because in America we're all one blanket, everybody feels the same way about things, they just need some money.

I remember hearing the song when I was 12 or 14 in - it must have been in Chicago, 'cause we didn't have a radio on the farm, and it was during the second World War. I had three brothers in that war who went overseas.

We have inherited a great music. This music is a holdover. It comes with us like the skin, the texture of our hair. It’s our memory banks.

I don’t have to lay on the couch and see a therapist because my therapist is in my paint brushes.

But I’ve been there and done that. I’m not trying to prove anything to anybody, and if somebody wants me to come, if they can afford what I ask, it’s not as much as Madonna makes; not that I want what Madonna makes, but I was saying.