People have taken time out of their day and spent their money to come sit down at a concert. And it's jazz music-it's not easy for them to get to it. I don't want them ever to feel that I'm taking their presence lightly.

My mom's a concert pianist so she started teaching me when I was around seven. When I was eight I started writing my own songs and kinda started putting piano and singing together. But I'm trained classically which is a big influence on me I think.

I grew up in the '80s and there was no bigger group than New Edition in R&B. I broke my piggy bank so me and my mom could go to a New Edition concert together.

My mom took me to a Dolly Parton concert when I was 3.

For everything I do I think about a 6-year-old girl and her mom that I saw at my concert last night. I think about what those two individuals would think if I were at a club last night. I never want to be arrested and I never want to get a DUI those are my moral values.

A concerted effort to preserve our heritage is a vital link to our cultural educational aesthetic inspirational and economic legacies - all of the things that quite literally make us who we are.

In my imagination yes I remember when I was six years old I was conducting all this concert in my house. But now it's real.

When I go to a concert I can't help but feel happy and everything else just goes away. I hope everyone feels that way at my concerts.

Corporations consumers and citizens must begin acting in concert to create a powerful third pillar of social transformation if we hope to meet the social challenges we currently face with equal force. This begins with corporations that choose to alter how they practice capitalism in two ways to serve the greater good.

Don't get me wrong - I've gone to a club. But I'd much rather be with my close friends at home or a concert or on a trip. I'll go dancing with my grandma. She likes to cut a rug!

I'm a firm believer that lighting affects mood and twinkly lights on strings bring something magical to occasions ranging from concerts to weddings though I'm fond of using them as year-round home decor. There's a reason why they're sometimes called fairy lights. When the night is right there aren't any strings at all.

I daresay one good concert justifies a week of satisfaction at home.

The way I feel today as long as my health is good and I can handle myself well and people still come to my concerts still buy my CDs I'll keep playing until I feel like I can't.

People forget how outcast 'They Might Be Giants' can be. They have a reputation for writing really deft funny clever melodies and they also make a lot of music for kids which is terrific but when you see them in concert they can rock the house.

The fans of 'The Hunger Games ' of the book are very passionate. It's funny: Even at my concerts there are people holding up 'Cinna' signs.

There's something dangerous about what's funny. Jarring and disconcerting. There is a connection between funny and scary.

I cannot give a single concert at which I do not play one piece after the other in an agony of terror because my memory threatens to fail me. This fear torments me for days beforehand.

Being famous gets me good concert tickets good tables in restaurants good seats at sporting events and that's really about it.

My goals have changed throughout my life. At one time it was winning awards selling out concert dates selling more albums than anyone else. Now my goals are to see my grandchildren grown live a long and healthy life with my family and friends and travel the world.

My mother was the first woman in the county in Indiana where we were born in Jay County to have a college degree. She was educated as a pianist and she wanted to concertize but when the war came she was married had a family so she started teaching.

I had a number of very strong personalities in my family. My father was a concert flutist the solo flute for Toscanini.

I didn't know if I had the music for it or if I could pull off the larger concert experience. Then I realized if I can just continue to be myself I'll be all right.

In those days a concert was a personal experience. I wanted to be as close as possible to the audience and of course big stadiums didn't enable you to do that. It wasn't my style.

Instead of plotting the demise of the traditional family as some politicians and religious leaders would have you believe gay people mow their lawns and watch 'American Idol' and video their children's concerts and have the same hopes and dreams that their straight counterparts do.