Lizz Wright

I want to record, tour, and just live life.

As a southern woman, we often define ourselves by who we are with. But I wanted my life to be built differently.

I'm so grateful for just the inherent mercy of life.

I think, as singers and performers, we are ambassadors of the human experience. I don't want to get bored just talking about myself.

Whoever is playing with me, they participate in the arrangement; I learned from Craig Street to really pool the stories and the skill and the voices of everybody around you on the bandstand to build an arrangement in the moment.

At 16, I was going to church and playing music for church, and Dad would only pay for piano lessons so I could play at church.

I think living in a way that's close to nature makes you feel like that - makes you feel how thin the veil is between life and death.

I see 'Grace' as an affectionate refusal of things that just aren't true. With all our power and money and influence, we still can't raise up high over people's consciousness.

I don't think words always lead to meaning, but the things you can create with them are still pretty amazing. I've been really into Joni Mitchell, for example, but I've also been into some studio stuff, like Bjork.

The church is an institution of music and of production and performance, and it has to do with taking people to places inside of themselves and giving them an opportunity to sit deep in their own feelings, and to be together and deeply alone at the same time, and to process things.

I didn't wait around for my parents' opinion about my venture out into contemporary music.

Where I come from, music is not a business. Sharing music is a business, but music is not a business. It comes from the people and belongs to the people.