I had always loved John Ford's pictures. And I came to love him, too, but I was frightened to death working for him. He used the shock treatment while directing me.

Basically there is no difference between whites and blacks, browns and yellows. I decided to think no more of people as Northerners and Southerners.

Whenever I played Columbus, Ohio, I dropped in to see my close friend, a medium who had mysterious powers. Her Indian guide was Mohawk.

We are all gifted. That is our inheritance.

We never had a bathtub. Mom would bathe me in the wooden or tin washtub in the kitchen, or in a big lard can.

I am somebody cause God don't make no junk

Many people know how to criticize, but few know how to praise.

Only those who are being burned know what fire is like.

Today or any day that phone may ring and bring good news.

There was one emotional outlet my people always had when they had the blues. That was singing.

All the men in my life have been two things: an epic and an epidemic.

Creative power is mightier than its possessor.

I'm thankful for the ability to share my faith in a lot of different places. It's something that I take as a responsibility and an obligation to handle as best as I can.

No self-respecting person who loves humanity or wishes for a world of greater equality and justice should have anything to do with whitewashing the slavery and extermination of Marxism-Leninism.

What I was is unimportant, what I am now is important.

I don't care what you do, I just don't want to be a mud hippie like you. [From 1994 woodstock]

Any goal can be achieved if you break it down into enough small parts.

Frankly, reviews aremostly for peoplewho still read.Like most of the written word, it isgoing the way of the dinosaur.

I think fans cling to me because I'm a blue-collar guy in a blue-collar city.

It is well to think well; it is divine to act well.

I've never had the impulse for someone else to translate me into my own language. My impulse has always been to translate someone else into mine.