Quotes

There are only two things I have to do: Stay Black and die.

I am not an entertainer. But I'm running the risk of being considered an entertainer by going into a nightclub because that's what they have in there. I don't want anybody to know me well enough to slap me on the back and say, 'Hey, baby.' The black experience through music, with a sense of dignity, that's all I have ever tried to do.

[Shirley did not like being thought of as a jazz pianist. In 1982 he told a New York Times reporter] Jazz piano players smoke while they're playing, and they'll put the glass of whisky on the piano, and then they'll get mad when they're not respected like Artur Rubinstein. You don't see Arthur Rubinstein smoking and putting a glass on the piano.