It’s a spirit that was given me and the relationships and meeting all these great people, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong; through Max I met a lot of people too. My first album was with Benny Carter.

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.

There are men and women still on the streets, and that’s all they are saying Can you spare a quarter? I come from a crowd of people who were current on the outlook on life, who were social and knew where they were and had some input into how things seemed to be.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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

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.