Abbey Lincoln

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

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

There’s millions and millions of people who think Les Paul is a guitar!

I think pop music is one of the few things in the 20th century that have made giant strides in reverse.

We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first, rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity.

If I’m going to sing like someone else, then I don’t need to sing at all.

That’s the beauty of music. They can’t take it from you.

Jazz is a music to be played and not to be intellectualized on.

If I could read it, I could play it.

As far as playing jazz, no other art form, other than conversation, can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction.

Man, as long as people want to hear Jazz, I’ll give it to them.

You’ve got to learn your instrument.

Do it again on the next verse and people think you meant it.

It made no sense to ignore them and to continue writing as if they did not exist. I felt that it was worth the effort to see if I couldn’t say what I had to say in the simplest possible terms.

You know at an early age if you have a talent for music.

I try to practice with my life.

The true artform is being a human being.