Jazz Singers

"Everywhere I performed in Brazil, I never saw black people. I only performed to white people. And they (the white people) said it's because they (the black people) can't afford to come here - it's too expensive. That is another form of keeping them from coming to where they can enjoy themselves together with white people. They keep them poor."

"The truth shall never be covered by a lie."

"In New York I heard A Piece of Ground, written by a white South African, Jeremy Taylor. I modified it a little and sang it myself. That song is very special to me because it deals with the land question in southern Africa. We were dispossessed of our land."

"The tragedy of civil wars in countries like Angola and Mozambique is that they left many civilians maimed. Poverty is the reason HIV/AIDS spread so rapidly in the African townships and slums. Poverty is the real killer."

"The man at the desk took my passport. He did not speak to me. He took a rubber stamp and slammed it down. Then he walked away. I picked up my passport. It was stamped 'Invalid'. 'They have done it,' I told myself. 'They have exiled me. I am not permitted to go home — not now, maybe not ever. My family, my home. Everything that has gone into the making of myself, gone'."

"I look at an ant and see myself: a native South African, endowed with a strength much greater than my size, so I might cope with the weight of racism that crushes my spirit."

"That was the only time my mother saw me on stage. At one point in the play I am strangled and my mother jumped from her seat and screamed: 'No. You will not get away with murder. You cannot do this to my daughter.' Friends explained to her that this was not for real — that we were acting. But she made such a fuss. Everyone was so embarrassed. On stage my heart sank."

"I still don't know why they banned me" she says. "I said to them, 'What did I do? I never killed anybody. I was never arrested for anything bad, so why can't I go home?."

"I'm not a political singer. I don't know what the word means. People think I consciously decided to tell the world what was happening in South Africa. No! I was singing about my life, and in South Africa we always sang about what was happening to us — especially the things that hurt us."

"Belafonte sent his people to pick me up and I went back and shook his hand, then went back to my little flat. I was very happy to have met a president of the United States - little me!"

"[Belafonte]'d take me to perform for Martin Luther King's cause. But when they were marching I did not take part, because I was not a citizen"

"[Belafonte] was a good teacher and looked after me. He said, 'You have such great talent, you must try not to be a tornado - be like a submarine. It was good advice when I found myself speaking at the UN Committee Against Apartheid and then the UN General Assembly."

"It was not a ban from the government. It was a cancellation by people who felt I should not be with Stokely because he was a rebel to them. I didn't care about that. He was somebody I loved, who loved me, and it was my life."

"[W]hen the President's visitors came to Guinea, we were all called on to go and entertain them. I've never seen a country that did what Sékou Touré did for artists. Even in South Africa today we are not nurtured like that."

"It's because they want to sound like Americans. I'd like to see them develop our music and sing it their way, but they think sounding American is going to take them higher, but it is not. They have beautiful voices, but they want to sound like Whitney Houston. You can't beat people like that at their own game. And they can't beat me at mine, either!"

"Girls are the future mothers of the , it is important we focus on their wellbeing."

"Her voice and her battles influenced the process of liberation and democratic rebirth in South Africa."

"We will miss her energy and her respectful concern for the world's most vulnerable."

"I'm a songwriter but she [Katie Melua] has her songs written for her... She must think it's her fucking lucky day... It's not like she's singing old songs like Jamie Cullum], she's singing shit new songs that her manager writes for her."

"The last real individualist."

"If it wasn't for Amy and Frank, one hundred per cent I wouldn't have picked up a guitar, I wouldn't have written "Daydreamer" or "Hometown" and I wrote "Someone Like You" on the guitar too. Contrary to reports, me and Amy didn't really know each other, we weren't friends or anything like that. I went to Brit School and she went for a little while. But a million per cent if I hadn't heard Frank this wouldn't have happened. I adored her."

"Amy Winehouse: Did she invent white soul? Wearing a beehive? No. But she did something brand new and fresh, altogether as a package, and you see who's in her wake, from the Duffys to the Lana Del Reys. Adele selling 20 million records? That would not have happened if Amy Winehouse was alive."

"I'll battle this bitter finale, Just me, my dignity and this guitar case."

"What kind of fuckery is this? You made miss the Slick Rick gig."

"It's okay in the day, I'm staying busy Tied up enough so I don’t have to wonder, "Where is he?" Got so sick of crying So just lately When I catch myself I do a 180 I stay up, clean the house At least I'm not drinking Run around just so I don't have to think about thinking That silent sense of content That everyone gets Just disappears soon as the sun sets His face in my dreams, seizing my guts He floods me with dread Soaked to the soul He swims in my eyes by the bed Pour myself over him Moon spilling in And I wake up alone."

"Then you notice likkle carpet burn My stomach drop and my guts churn You shrug and it's the worst Who truly stuck the knife in first? I cheated myself like I knew I would I told you I was trouble, you know that I'm no good I cheated myself, like I knew I would I told you I was trouble, yeah you know that I'm no good."

"He walks away, The sun goes down, He takes the day but I'm grown And in your way, In this blue shade My tears dry on their own."

"I don't understand, Why do I stress a man, When there's so many bigger things at hand. We could've never had it all, We had to hit a wall, So this is inevitable withdrawal. Even if I stop wanting you And perspective pushes through, I'll be some next man's other woman soon. I couldn't play myself again, I should just be my own best friend, Not fuck myself in the head with stupid men."

"He left no time to regret, Kept his dick wet, With his same old safe bet. Me & my head high, And my tears dry, Get on without my guy."

"They tried to make me go to Rehab I said no, no, no Yes, I've been black, but when I come back You'll know, know, know! I ain’t got the time, And if my daddy thinks I'm fine Just try to make me go to rehab I won't go, go, go."

"I'd rather be at home with Ray, I ain't got seventy days Cause there's nothing, There's nothing you can teach me That I can't learn from Mr Hathaway. I didn't get a lot in class But I know it don't come in a shot glass."

"Though I battle blind, Love is a fate resigned Memories mar my mind, Love is a fate resigned Over futile odds, And laughed at by the gods And now the final frame, Love is a losing game."

"My destructive side has grown a mile wide and I question myself again: what is it about men?"

"The Moschino bra you bought me last Christmas Put it in the box, put it in the box Frank's in there and I don't care Put it in the box, put it in the box, Now take it, Take the box."

"You'll never get my mind right like 2 ships passing in the night."

"You've got a degree in philosophy, So you think you're cleverer than me. But I'm not just some drama queen, Cos it's where you're at not where you've been. So what do you expect from me, To hold your head above the sea? And there are you even though you're bigger, Cos don't you know you crush my tiny figure? And anyway we're still so young And this isn't yet the day. I can't help you if you won't help yourself."

"You can't sit down right, Cause your jeans are too tight, And you're lucky it's ladies night. With your big empty purse, Every week it gets worse, At least your breasts cost more than hers."

"You should be stronger than me, But instead you're longer than frozen turkey, Why'd you always put me in control? All I need is for my man to live up to his role, Always wanna talk it through- I'm ok, Always have to comfort you every day, But that's what I need you to do - are you gay?"

"There's no point in saying anything except the truth."

"Life happens. There is no point in being upset or down about things we can't control or change."

"Life's short. Anything could happen, and it usually does, so there is no point in sitting around thinking about all the ifs, ands and buts."

"I know there are people in the world who have worse problems than falling in love and having it blow up in your face, but I didn't want to just wake up drinking, and crying, and listening to the Shangri-Las, and go to sleep, and wake up drinking, and listening to the Shangri-Las. So I turned it into songs, and that's how I got through it."

"I always said I never wanted to write about love, but then I went and did that anyway."

"It's not important to me to make other people at ease. I am difficult, but that's 'cause I don’t really give a fuck."

"I was in such a state while I was recovering from this surgery and the pain medication that I was on sort of took all the inhibitions out that I may have had. I found that I was ordering things online; big boxes of stuff would arrive at my house."

"Harry is a true musician. He has a massive amount of information that he's dealing with, so he is very comfortable wherever a song goes. Great music is like leaping off a cliff, but some musicians will only go to the precipice. Harry just jumps, which is why playing with him is very liberating."

"New Orleans is a city of paradox. Sin, salvation, sex, sanctification, so intertwined yet so separate."

"I started making movies when I was 20. I started playing piano when I was about 3 years old, so I'm probably a musician first. But when I'm working on a movie, as an actor, I'm an actor - 100 percent. And when I'm on tour, I'm a musician 100 percent."

"[When asked how he's keeping his 12-year marriage to wife Jill fresh] Hookers, drugs. We’re playing the field right now."

"I'm not staying contemporary for the big record companies, I don't follow the latest fashions. I never sing a song that's badly written. In the 1920s and '30s, there was a renaissance in music that was the equivalent of the artistic Renaissance. Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer and others just created the best songs that had ever been written. These are classics, and finally they're not being treated as light entertainment. This is classical music."