I'm singing these songs to inspire you, to keep you going, to lift you up and give you a reason to get up in the morning

If I wasn't my age, I would turn a flip. I would do some cartwheels. That's how I feel.

There's still injustice happening in my world. I sing my songs at concerts and I'm so grateful that the people are ready to hear them.

I won't wear rings and jewelry on the stage because I don't want you looking at my hands. I want you hearing what I'm saying.

I have to pinch myself sometimes. It's unbelievable, but it's not. Because I know that this would not be happening if it hadn't been for Dr. Martin Luther King.

Well Lord, I'm still on the case. I'm still doing what Dr. King and Pops want me to do. I'm still on that freedom highway, and I'm going to walk on it until Dr. King's dream is realized.

I never sang for a Grammy, for money, for fame. That's my whole purpose for singing: for people, for the fans.

We stay strong. We stay positive, keep our heads up, love one another, spread love. The Devil can't win when you have God on your side.

There is a great feeling in a small venue, with the closeness of the people and the intimacy.

Music is such a joy, just an absolute joy.

I have fun just about everywhere I go.

Virtue begins with understanding and is fulfilled by courage.

And how funny, strange, that a thing can grow so powerful even when planted in the wrong place. Ideas too, I muttered. Ideas.

WHILE writing, just try to have fun with your ms. Enjoy the process, but push on. Always push toward the finish line!

I hate, simply, to work. I just hate to work, period. I am profoundly slothful. Practically inert.

We do not so much want books for good people, as books which will make bad ones better.

This overwhelming desire to be close to you directly conflicts with my intense fear of people.

I have a complicated relationship with non-human animals. I've never really been close to one.

No one worth possessing can be quite possessed.

I've never sung a single song in my whole life on purpose to shock anyone. My 'hot numbers' are all, if you will notice, written about something that is real in the lives of millions of people.

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ryTay! Alas! I am very sorry to say That ninety lives have been taken away On the last Sabbath day of1879, Which will be remember'd for a very long time.