I only got a seventh-grade education, but I have a doctorate in funk, and I like to put that to good use

The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing.

Hair is the first thing. And teeth the second. Hair and teeth. A man got those two things he's got it all.

I Don’t Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open Up the Door, I'll Get It Myself)

I named my new son James Joseph Brown II. I think he's going to be a lot better than I was.

Sometimes you struggle so hard to feed your family one way, you forget to feed them the other way, with spiritual nourishment. Everybody needs that.

My music wasn't written by Mozart, Beethoven, Bach or Schubert. It's written by God and me. They go "a one and a two and up." We start on the downbeat. Bam! And that's where we got them.

I've got soul and I'm super bad.

You got to use what you got to get just what you want.

I taught them everything they know, but not everything I know.

Music, it requires more than brawn. It requires a lot of heart. You gotta put love in there.

This country awakens so many memories, though each seems like some restless sparrow I know will flee any moment into the breeze.

It’s important to know that you're behind, to be able to convince yourself to make sacrifices that get you ahead.

If a novel was a map of a country, a story was the bright silver pin that marked the crossroads.

I missed the good old days when phones were sturdy enough to be pounded for emphasis.

I do outlines when I'm writing with someone, but they also need to have a certain amount of freedom

We must educate the public. The average person has no idea of what's going on in factory farms, in laboratories, circuses, roadside zoos or rodeos.

Love thy neighbour as yourself, but choose your neighbourhood.

praise is a great tonic, and helps most people to do their best.

Anything that is worth doing has been done frequently. Things hitherto undone should be given, I suspect, a wide berth.

Wise man and river; they both create new paths!