Controversial Sayings

I don't play notes, I play feelings.

I wish they would just let me play my guitar and not make a big thing out of all this other stuff.

Me don't have no education. Me have inspiration. If me was educated, me would be a damn fool.

Rock 'n' roll? It's the most brutal, ugly, degenerate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear.

I never had a mother, never had a father, never had a home, I never had a husband. I just had me.

How can you be an artist and not reflect the times? That to me is the definition of an artist.

I'm not a diva. I'm a queen.

I was interested in ideas—not merely in visual products. I wanted to put painting once again at the service of the mind.

I have been with my flowers all day and I am tired.

The Jew has never had a true art of his own, and has never been able to create one.

The artist must possess a special faculty for vision, not a mere talent for dexterity.

My art is truly a confession. A voluntary unveiling of my soul.

I never did like the Beatles. I didn't like their music. I thought it was corny.

I've always been very interested in magic, and I've always been very interested in the occult. I think it's a very powerful force.

The Negro must rise up with an affirmation of his own Olympian manhood.

I've been to more jails than I have churches.

The Jew is a producer of nothing but discontent.

I can do a great deal of good by doing good for myself.

I don't care a snap for the public.

There is no royal road to success, but through hard work, energy, and perseverance.