If I hear one of my songs by anybody, it's a dream come true every time for me as a songwriter, because I want to write a song, I want to write a song that the world can sing and will always sing.

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.

There is no failure in loving someone, only in never letting them know.

Success is likened to a deep pit, you have to jump in to get it, then you'll need a ladder of grace to climb out to enjoy it.

The spirits increase, vigor grows through a wound.

Talking of white supremacist violent types, I was in America, recently.

Sickness has frequently been of more use to the saints of God than health has.

Real heroes are others, those who have suffered in their soul, in their heart, in their spirit, in their mind, for their loved ones. Those are the real heroes. Im just a cyclist.

As an actor, you get to sort of bounce back and forth in terms of the age range you play and the life experience that your characters have.

The World is a very complex system. It is easy to have too simple a view of it, and it is easy to do harm and to make things worse under the impulse to do good and make things better.

I don't think the idea of working in Hollywood really exists anymore. I think you work in films, and where the film is shot is where it's shot. The studio system doesn't really exist.

Happiness presents itself to man, wearing the crown of sorrow on its head. He who welcomes it must also welcome sorrow.