“That's something Mary Lou Williams used to tell me: If you're not feel...” — Marian McPartland Quote

That's something Mary Lou Williams used to tell me: If you're not feeling right about what you're doing and you play a minor tune it all comes back, falls into place. I don't know if that's true, but I do it.

Baldwin is sort of getting to be a bit funny. I don't know what happened, but a few years ago they suddenly went bankrupt and Gibson bought the whole outfit. Since then they haven't seemed to be doing an awfully good job of providing pianos.

So if I think of something in my head I don't have to do it. If I can't do I don't do it, I do something else.

I'd just as soon be on a good Steinway or Yamaha just as well.

I really never saw an obstacle for me in taking leadership positions because, in a very ridiculous way, I thought, 'If Mary Robinson can do it then why can't I?'

I played Mary at the age of seven in my first nativity play, and I loved it - there is something so fascinating about embodying someone else.

Mary doesn't want to be treated as Mary J. Blige: she just wants to be Mary.

To me, it wasn't 'Star Wars' that shaped me; it was more 'Mary Tyler Moore' and, nowadays, 'Louie' and 'Girls.'

There are people out there who want to provoke me and bring back the old Mary but I'm not giving them the satisfaction.