Commas in The New Yorker fall with the precision of knives in a circus act, outlining the victim. Elwyn Brooks White Act • Circus • Fall • Knives • New • Precision • Victim • Yorker
To perceive Christmas through its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year. Elwyn Brooks White Christmas • Difficult • Every Year • Through • Wrappings • Year
One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy. Elwyn Brooks White Enemy • Most • Things • Time-Consuming • Timeconsuming Things
The time not to become a father is eighteen years before a war. Elwyn Brooks White Become • Before • Eighteen • Father • Time • War • Years
English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education – sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street. Elwyn Brooks White Across • Education • English • Judgment • Luck • Mere • More • Sheer • Sometimes • Street • Taste • Usage
It is easier for a man to be loyal to his club than to his planet; the bylaws are shorter, and he is personally acquainted with the other members. Elwyn Brooks White Bylaws • Club • Easier • He • Loyal • Man • Personally • Planet • Shorter
The world organization debates disarmament in one room and, in the next room, moves the knights and pawns that make national arms imperative. Elwyn Brooks White Debates • Disarmament • Knights • Make • Next • One • Organization • Room • World
I have yet to see a piece of writing, political or non-political, that doesn't have a slant. All writing slants the way a writer leans, and no man is born perpendicular, although many men are born upright. Elwyn Brooks White Born • Man • Many • Men • Nonpolitical • Perpendicular • Piece • Political • Slant • Upright • Way • Writing
You have to know the forces that are against you and that are trying to break you down. We talk about the problems facing the black community: the decimation of the black family; the mass incarceration of the black man; we're talking about the brutality against black people from the police. The educational system. D'Angelo Black • Community • Decimation • Facing • Family • Forces • Incarceration • Man • Mass • People • Police • Problems
I'm always writing and learning. It's about growth. So I'm growing as a musician, as a guitarist. D'Angelo Growing • Growth • Guitarist • Learning • Musician • Writing
I learned at an early age that what we were doing in the choir was just as important as the preacher. It was a ministry in itself. We could stir the pot, you know? D'Angelo Age • Choir • Doing • Early • Early Age • Important • Itself • Know • Ministry • You
The thing with me is, about that – about rock and all that – years and years of crate-digging, listening to old music, you kind of start to connect the dots. And I was seeing the thread that was connecting everything together, which is pretty much the blues. And everything soul or funk kind of starts with that. D'Angelo Blues • Connection • Cratedigging Listening • Everything • Funk • Kind • Me • Much • Music • Old • Old music • Pretty • Rock • Rock Music • Soul • Start • Thing • Thread • Years
The music business is a crazy game, especially for somebody like me who is really a purist about the art. Trying to balance the pressures of commercialism, it's a tightrope. It's a fine line between sticking to your guns and insanity. D'Angelo Art • Balance • Between • Business • Commercialism • Crazy • Fine • Game • Guns • Line • Me • Music • Pressures • Purist • Somebody • Tightrope
I grew up teaching parts to choirs, and I love a whole group of voices singing as one. D'Angelo Choirs • Group • Love • One • Parts • Singing • Up • Voices • Whole
Aretha Franklin was as important to the civil-rights movement as Malcolm X and Medgar Evers. Artists can choose to take on the tremendous amount of responsibility we have, or choose to ignore it. D'Angelo Aretha • Artists • Civilrights • Franklin • Ignore • Important • Malcolm • Movement • Responsibility • Take • Tremendous Amount
I think it just takes one little snowflake to start a snowball to go down the hill. My contribution and, say, Kendrick Lamar's and some chosen others' start the snowball. That's all I can hope for. I don't know if I'm comfortable being quote-unquote a leader. D'Angelo Comfortable • Contribution • Down • Hope • Kendrick Lamar • Know • Leader • Little • One • Others • Snowball • Snowflake • Start • Think
When I was young, I had an 'aha' moment in church. There was a thing called testimony service, and somebody would sing a song, and everyone else would join in, finding a note where they fit. During one of those, a light went on in my head. In that moment, I heard everything – Parliament, the Staple Singers, Curtis Mayfield, Prince – in there. D'Angelo Aha • Called • Church • Curtis • Everyone • Everything • Finding • Head • Light • Moment • Prince • Service • Singers • Song • Staple • Testimony • Thing • Young
The stage is our pulpit, and you can use all of that energy and that music and the lights and the colors and the sound. But you know, you've got to be careful. D'Angelo Careful • Colors • Energy • Know • Lights • Music • Pulpit • Stage • You
I've always kind of tried to do something that was a little different than just simple 'I love you, baby'-type songs. D'Angelo Different • I Love You • Kind • Little • Love • Simple • Something • You
Coming up, the music of my era was very conscious. I grew up on Public Enemy, and it was popular culture to be aware. People were wearing Malcolm X T-shirts and Malcolm X hats. It was a very cool thing to know who Malcolm X was. It was all in the lyrics. It was trendy to be conscious and aware. D'Angelo Aware • Conscious • Cool • Cool Thing • Culture • Hats • Know • Lyrics • Malcolm • Music • People • Popular • Public • Trendy • Tshirts
I played a lot of keyboards, but I really wanted to produce the sound that was in my head that I was trying to emulate on the keys. I wanted to do it for real. And it makes me look at the keys in a different way. So it's like I'm looking at the guitar and bass more like meat and potatoes and keys like coloring over top of it, you know. D'Angelo Different Way • Guitar • Head • Keyboards • Keys • Look • Looking • Lot • Me • Real • Sound • Trying • You
Just about the entirety of the first album, 'Brown Sugar,' I wrote it, the majority of that record in my bedroom in Richmond. And all of the demos for it were done on a four-track in my bedroom. I think EMI was a little leery of me being in the studio producing it on my own, which is what I was fighting for. D'Angelo Album • Bedroom • Brown • Demos • Done • EMI • Entirety • Fighting • First • Fourtrack • Leery • Little • Majority • Me • My Own • Record • Studio Producing • Sugar • Think
I'm kinda a first take dude. The first time, cut that mic on, and the spirit is there, and what comes on the mic – I mean, even if I'm mumbling, I like to keep a lot of that initial thing that comes out. Cause that's the spirit. D'Angelo Dude • First • First Time • Mean • Mic • Spirit • Time
I love – you know, I'm a big fan of Prince and Curtis Mayfield and Smoky Robinson. It's something to be said about a man who can be very masculine but still display that sensitive side, and that falsetto does it perfectly. D'Angelo Big • Big Fan • Display • Know • Love • Man • Masculine • Prince • Said • Sensitive • Side • Something • You
I think shortly after I got signed, it just started to dawn on me that I had something to say and that Yahweh put something in my heart to share with the world. D'Angelo Dawn • Heart • Me • Say • Something • Think • World
Prince, you never knew what to expect from him from one album to the next. Miles Davis was like that. You know, once you get used to one style, boom, he switched it and, you know, switched gears on you. So those artists are very exciting to me, very exciting to follow their path, you know, and their journey. D'Angelo Album • Artists • Boom • Exciting • Expect • Gears • Journey • Know • Me • Miles • Next • Once • One • Path • Prince • Style • You
It's about people rising up in Ferguson and in Egypt and in Occupy Wall Street and in every place where a community has had enough and decides to make change happen. It's not about praising one charismatic leader but celebrating thousands of them… 'Black Messiah' is not one man. It's a feeling that, collectively, we are all that leader. D'Angelo Black Messiah • Change • Collectively • Community • Egypt • Every Place • Feeling • Leader • Man • Occupy Wall • One Charismatic Leader • People • Thousands
‘Black Messiah’ is a hell of a name for an album. It can easily be misunderstood. Many will think it’s about religion. Some will jump to the conclusion that I’m calling myself a Black Messiah. For me, the title is about all of us. It’s about the world. It’s about an idea we can all aspire to. We should all aspire to be a Black Messiah. D'Angelo Album • Aspire • Black Messiah • Conclusion • Hell • Idea • Many • Misunderstood • Name • Religion • Title • Us • World
With acting, I started very young, and I'd performed for a lot of children in boarding schools, late at night after the dormitory lights were out. I'd have a flashlight, and I'd be Count Dracula, or Shakespeare, or Yogi Bear, and leap from bunk to bunk. I loved the laughter; I liked the way it made people feel. C. C. H. Pounder Acting • Bear • Boarding Schools Late • Bunk • Children • Dracula • Feeling • Flashlight • Laughter • Leap • Lot • Loved • Night • People • School • Shakespeare • Way • Young
Applause is the most powerful thing… people talk about the sound of it, but what I hear is glee. C. C. H. Pounder Applause • Glee • Most • People • Powerful • Powerful Thing • Sound • Talk
I considered myself very lucky after 'Baghdad Cafe,' and I have 'The Shield.' In every genre, I've kicked butt at some point. I'm real happy. C. C. H. Pounder Baghdad • Butt • Cafe • Every • Genre • Happy • Lucky • Myself • Point • Real • Shield
When I was a kid, a pickleball hit me in the back of the head, and I had memory problems. I was in a boarding school and the nuns gave me poems to remember to try and get the memory going again. C. C. H. Pounder Back • Boarding • Head • Kid • Me • Memory • Pickleball • Problems • Remember • School
'Bagdad Cafe' was a film that changed many, many people's lives… how they saw themselves and how they looked at their life situation. I thought I made a little movie. All the mail that I get is about how it changed lives, and that's wonderful. C. C. H. Pounder Bagdad Cafe • Cafe • Film • Life • Little • Lives • Mail • Many • Movie • People • Situation • Thought • Wonderful
I don't have a problem with recognition… It's very, very rarely about who I am, it's always, 'I love your work.'… It's always in relation to my work, which I think is a really lucky thing to have happen as opposed to, 'Oh, you're a famous personality.' C. C. H. Pounder Famous • I Am • Love • Personality • Problem • Rarely • Recognition • Work
I'm not successful in Hollywood, and I probably would never be. I think Hollywood has such an interesting model for success, and it creates those successful people. I'm not in that chosen category, but what is successful for me is that, in spite of that, I've been able to work and do the things that I wrote down that I wanted to do and be. C. C. H. Pounder Chosen Category • Down • Hollywood • Interesting • Me • Model • People • Spite • Success • Successful • Think • Work
The thing about being black and having a different accent, in the beginning, is that it makes you foreign. C. C. H. Pounder Accent • Beginning • Black • Different • Thing • You
I've got a general callout with the Caribbean world in which I'm interested in helping in any way to get their well-written good stories out to the rest of the world. I am really interested in helping those stories get to a completion and public viewing. C. C. H. Pounder Callout • Caribbean • Completion • General • Good • I Am • Interested • Public • Rest • Stories • Way • World
When people treat you mean, you dislike them for that, but not because of their person, who they are. I was born and raised in a segregated society, but when I left there, I had nobody I disliked other than the people that'd mistreated me, and that only lasted for as long as they were mistreating me. B. B King Born • Me • Nobody • People • Person • Segregated Society • Society • Treat • You
Back when we was in school in Mississippi, we had Little Black Sambo. That's what you learned: Anytime something was not good, or anytime something was bad in some kinda way, it had to be called black. Like, you had Black Monday, Black Friday, black sheep… Of course, everything else, all the good stuff, is white. White Christmas and such. B. B King Anytime Something • Bad • Black • Black Monday • Christmas • Course Everything • Friday • Good • Good Stuff • Kinda Way • Little Black Sambo • Mississippi • Monday • School • Sheep • White
What don't I want to learn? I have how-to books, history, nature. Ain't nobody here saying, 'You'd better learn this.' But I still think I've got a head on my shoulders, and it pleases me. B. B King Books History • Head • History • Howto • Me • Nature • Nobody • Saying • Think • You
Even now, at 82 years old, if I don't learn something every day, you know what I think? It's a day lost. Now, I don't practice every day. I just take the guitar, swear at it. But I should be swearing at myself. But I fool with music. I'm doing something musically all the time. And my ears are wide open for anything I can hear. B. B King Anything • Day • Ears • Every • Fool • Guitar • Music • Myself • Old • Open • Practice • Something • Swear • Time • Years
The minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille. B. B King Minute • Orally • Playing • Singing • Start • Stop
I've put up with more humiliation than I care to remember. B. B King Care • Humiliation • More • Remember • Up
I tried to connect my singing voice to my guitar an' my guitar to my singing voice. Like the two was talking to one another. B. B King Another • Guitar • Singing • Singing Voice • Talking • Two • Voice
I would sit on the street corners in my hometown of Indianola, Mississippi, and I would play. And, generally, I would start playing gospel songs. People would come by on the street – you live in Time Square, you know how they do it – they would bunch up. And they would always compliment me on gospel tunes, but they would tip me when I played blues. B. B King Blues • Hometown • Indianola Mississippi • Live • Me • People • Songs • Start • Street Corners • Time • Time Square • Tunes • You
I was born on a plantation, and things weren't so good. We didn't have any money. I never thought of the word 'poor' 'til I got to be a man, but when you live in a house that you can always peek out of and see what kind of day it is, you're not doing so well. And your rest room is not inside the house. B. B King Born • Day • Doing • Good • House • Live • Man • Money • Plantation • Things • Til • Word
Whenever I'm in Kansas City, I think back to all the jazz-blues greats who played the blues here – like Count Basie, Charlie Parker and Jay McShann. I watched those guys jam in different places and heard a lot of things – but I couldn't do what they did. They were too good. B. B King Back • Blues • City • Different Places • Good • Greats • Guys • Jam • Jazzblues • Kansas • Lot • Places • Things • Think • Whenever
Growing up, I was taught that a man has to defend his family. When the wolf is trying to get in, you gotta stand in the doorway. B. B King Doorway • Family • Gotta • Growing • Growing Up • Man • Taught • Trying • Wolf
Cotton was a force of nature. There's a poetry to it, hoeing and growing cotton. B. B King Cotton • Force • Growing • Nature • Poetry
Sometimes I just think that there are more things to be said to make the audience understand what I'm trying to do more. When I'm singing, I don't want you to just hear the melody. I want you to relive the story, because most of the songs have pretty good storytelling. B. B King Audience • Good • Melody • Pretty • Singing • Songs • Story • Storytelling • Things • Think • Trying • You
Elwyn Brooks White
D'Angelo
C. C. H. Pounder
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