I loved Billie Holiday more than any other person other than myself on the stage. Yeah I do.

I dont have to lay on the couch and see a therapist because my therapist is in my paint brushes.

Its 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 thats what really a substantial work is its forever. Its the truth now and it was the truth then and it will be the truth tomorrow.

I was looking for the people who were making the music inside the cabinet. I would look in there and see if I could find somebody who was making all this wonderful music.

I remember hearing the song when I was 12 or 14 in – it must have been in Chicago cause we didnt have a radio on the farm and it was during the second World War. I had three brothers in that war who went overseas.

But Ive been there and done that. Im not trying to prove anything to anybody and if somebody wants me to come if they can afford what I ask its not as much as Madonna makes not that I want what Madonna makes but I was saying.

There are men and women still on the streets and thats 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.