I found out along the way that they like you a little imperfect.

You wouldn't be allowed to get on a particular bus, but you'd be asked to sign your autograph.

Malcolm X raised my consciousness about myself and my people and other people more than any person I know. I knew him before he became Malcolm X.

I really do hate to sing.

I'm still learning, you know. At 80, I feel there is a lot I don't know.

It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it. Carry it by the comfortable handles of gratitude for what's positive and that it is not worse, rather than the uncomfortable edges of bitterness for the negatives and that it is not better.

50 years old is like springtime to me.