When I went south in the 1960s, I knew I could die. If I went down there and did what I did up in Chicago and made all of those hatin' white folks laugh, then I would have been defeated.

I feel that the same God-force that is the mother and father of the Pope is also the mother and father of the loneliest wino on the planet.

America has the mightiest military on the planet, and they didn't get there with entertainers.

Now here's what I'm saying: I've always believed that every other month we hear about compromisation of bank records, I think that's the CIA and the FBI. Now let me tell you why I'm saying this. I don't believe no insignificant pip-squeak is going to be able to pull this off month after month and we can't find out what's going on.

What price would God demand from the churches for having the audacity to lighten the color of his son's skin, and straighten out his nappy hair?

Life isn't a race. It's a relay.

I never thought I'd see the day that I would see white folks as frightened, or more so, than black folks was during the civil rights movement when we was in Mississippi.