The Beatles were huge. And the first thing they said when you interviewed them, 'Oh yeah, we grew up on Motown.'..They were the first white act to admit they grew up listening to black music.

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.

We are members of God’s family. One faith, one hope and one baptism.

Often the most effective statement we can make in a noisy world is to say nothing at all. Don't waste your words over something or to someone who deserves silence.

The price of coming from a small town is that everyone knows your story. Your book has been read, shelved, dusted, and re-read by everybody.

You can't fake this music. You might be a great singer or a great musician but, in the need, that's got nothing to do with it. It's how you connect to the songs and to the history behind them.

When I say that I am opposed to this budget, everyone says, "Well, what do you think the United States should do?" My response is, "Why should the United States do anything?"

If you wish to educate a child who has gone wrong, then you must, above all, keep your attention fixed on the intersection of two charmed circles.

To play with a band all of the time, just about nightly, was good for me because I wrote lots of arrangements and I got a lot of my transposition and chords ironed out.

To be truly visionary we have to root our imagination in our concrete reality while simultaneously imagining possibilities beyond that reality.

I always want my options to be open.

I was once invited to take part in a heroic, possibly fatal enterprise, but I declined, mainly on account of sloth.