When you dominate other people's emotions, the time has to come when you will have to pay, and heavily, for that privilege.

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.

So I do fear death in the sense that I find the prospect of dying pretty scary. But I no longer fear that I will one day be annihilated and cease to exist.

Conscience does make cowards of us all.

I always wanted to be where the cool was because I didn't think I was cool. But music was cool.

Man must at all costs overcome the Earth's gravity and have, in reserve, the space at least of the Solar System.

I was seven years old when I learnt the back somi on beam.

He's got great vision. If he can get outside, he can take it all the way. That's what we were worried about.

If we knew the value of suffering, we would ask for it.

Part of what makes music so interesting is the lack of consensus on just about any given topic.

The problem isn’t too little money in political campaigns, but not enough.

Being patient does not mean being silent.