I remember my first check that I got for a thousand dollars, and where I grew up, I never thought I'd have a thousand dollars at one time.

Once you're a Motown artist, you're always a Motown artist

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day

I don't ever balk at being considered a Motown person, because Motown is the greatest musical event that ever happened in the history of music

As human beings, we're very materialistic and have all this stuff - furs and cars and diamonds and money.

If you feel like loving me, if you've got the notion, I second that emotion.

The only thing you're taking out of here is your spirit and your soul, so we need to be conscious to try and develop that part of ourselves, because we're all spiritual creatures.

Songwriting is my gift from God

One thing I can say about the Motown acts is that we were a family. That's not a myth

Mistakes, I know I've made a few. But I'm only human, you've made mistakes, too.

I will bring you a flower from the floor of the sea to wear in your hair.

All we have to do is ask and believe that God will work on our behalf and give us what we need to overcome and rise above the adversities and stress that we are facing.

If you know the correct path then lost people are your responsibility.

A wise man nourishes his soul each morning with the word of God and enriches his day with God's wisdom. Psalm 19:7.

Pride is a vice not only dreadfully mischievous in human society, but perhaps of all others, the most insuperable bar to real inward improvement.

Cleverness is a burden after that. You are supposed to settle down and be a good person, raise your children, and be good to your friends, which you may not have been back when you were clever.

Novelists get to direct the perfect films. We get to cast every part. We dress the set exactly as we wish.

I've always been interesting in characters that challenge people and who are not always that easy to like.

The story line of my novel [The Kite Runner] is largely fictional. The characters were invented and the plot imagined.

Only those who dare may fly

The power to tax, once conceded, has no limits; it continues until it destroys.