Musical Perseverance Quotes

I guess fortunate that I'm still around and I emphasize I guess because you never can tell what musicians would be playing had they been around as long as I have.

Enjoy music. Not the kind that rocks and rolls, but the music of the masters, the music that has lived through the centuries, the music that has lifted people. If you do not have a taste for it, listen to it thoughtfully. If you do not like it the first time, listen to it again and keep listening.

A lot of my favorite artists didn't sell much out the gate. I didn't with Common at first. Neither did first albums from Outkast, Nas, or Jay Z. It doesn't scare me.

I heard Mr. Wild Bill Davis. I heard him play in 1930 and he told me that it would take me fifteen years just to learn the pedals, the pedals of the organ and I got mad.

I try all night to play a pretty note.

You have to really have the will to hang onto the first note as it is being played, and then really stay with it and take the flight, as it were, you know, for the duration of the piece.

Somebody can do a ten year stint in jail and when they come home, they can be a rapper. Or, they can go from doing the 9-5 thing and become a rapper because everyone else is doing it. I think that the test of time will tell. If you look around you'll find out who really wants to do it and who is doing it for the come up. I think that's the greatest separation. At some point along the line, it became gangsta to not be talented!

I play until my fingertips are raw. Until I rip a nail and bleed on the strings. Until my hands hurt so bad I forget my heart does.

The level of musicianship in New York is the highest in the world. It's tough to get into. You start gigging making 50 dollars a night, or playing for nothing to get to something. It's insane. It's like being a modern dancer, or something - the hardest thing to make money from.

I don't know if it will be my big comeback, but I think it is a statement - that I am a self-sustaining, vibrant, long-term artist, and I'm not going away! And if you don't give me credit, then the musical gods will!