I was a piano player before I was a poet.
Category Archive: Gil Scott-Heron
Our accomplishments show what kind of people we are.
Well, I grew up on the blues, man!
Schedule? I have no schedule. There is no hurry. I work when I want to.
I thought that some of my best records was when there wasn’t a lot of work being done on it, like ‘Winter in America’ and ‘Secrets’ and when there weren’t a whole lot of people in the studios.
I learnt early on that your audience take the songs in the way they want to rather than the way you might want them too.
If someone comes to you and asks for help, and you can help them, you’re supposed to help them. Why wouldn’t you? You have been put in the position somehow to be able to help this person.
As for money – when I have it, it’s great. When I don’t, I go get some. I’ve been a dishwasher, a gardener, a cleaner.
Womenfolk raised me, and I was full-grown before I knew I came from a broken home.
The way you get to know yourself is by the expressions on other people’s faces, because that’s the only thing that you can see, unless you carry a mirror about.