Life is - the way God has given it to me was just a platter - a golden platter of life laid out there for me. It's been beautiful.

I read novels but I also read the Bible. And study it, you know? And the more I learn, the more excited I get.

I've never been accused of a felony. I never spent time behind bars except for a few overnight jail times back in the Sixties. [But] I think there's a little bit of a criminal in all of us. Everybody's done something they don't want anybody to know about.

The gospel of Christ must always be an open door with a welcome sign for all.

Creative people have to be fed from the divine source. I have to get fed. I had to get filled up in order to pour out.

My mother always told me that any talent is a gift of God and I always believed it. If I quit, I would just live in front of the television and get fat and die pretty soon.

A song stylist is, like, to take an old folk song like "Delia's Gone" and do a modern white man's version of it.