I knew exactly what I was, and there was no hang-up with me. None whatsoever. The fact that the pigment of my skin maybe being lighter brown than other people of my race, maybe some of them, but you know our race has all colors.

Billy Eckstine

Related Quotes

I was so enamored with the idea of being in show business so everything was bright to me. I mean, I didn't think of it as being tough and things like that.

— Billy Eckstine

I think a song that's got something to say. I'm not much on gimmicks. I never have been because they don't last. But I like a song that tells a story and has some meat to it, you know, that means something.

— Billy Eckstine

I started mainly learning piano, but not as an accomplished pianist. I learned by just using it as a basis for harmonic structures.

— Billy Eckstine

I never had those hang-ups. I mean, I think the people that were concerned, maybe your agents and things had those things, but I never knew.

— Billy Eckstine

I just went to Harvard a little while, because I graduated from Armstrong High School in Washington and then I went up there but I didn't stay that long because I went into show business.

— Billy Eckstine