Growing up in Augusta in such a protected and loving community is something that I really enjoy talking about. I love talking about - even though I grew up, of course, in the time of segregated schools: Brown vs. Board of Education came along after I was already in first grade.

I try to frighten my very young colleagues into studying and understanding their voices before they attempt things that are beyond them. It's wise to take gymnastics and swimming to strengthen the body, because people don't realise what an athletic undertaking singing actually is.

I want to keep learning, keep exploring, keep doing more.

One needs more than ambition and talent to make a success of anything, really. There must be love and a vocation.

My ideal is a book that is perfect on every page, that gives you tremendous aesthetic joy on every page. I suppose I am trying to write such a book.

People in day-to-day life tend to skim the surface of things and be polite and careful, and that's not the language I speak. I like talking about feelings, fears and memories, anguish and joy, and I find it in music.

I dance. A lot. I work grief and sadness out of my body when I dance, and I bring in joy and rhythm.

What matters poverty? What matters anything to him who is enamoured of our art? Does he not carry in himself every joy and every beauty?