Time is important to me because I want to sing long enough to leave a message. I'm used to singing in churches where nobody would dare stop me until the Lord arrives!

Gospel music rhythms are not African in origin, although I know that's what the jazz experts say.

The trouble with records is that they're too short.

Gospel music in those days of the early 1930s was really taking wing. It was the kind of music colored people had left behind them down South and they liked it because it was just like a letter from home.

Sometimes you ask God for something and you don't know what you're asking.

If you want me to sing this Christmas song with the feeling and the meaning, you better see if you can locate that check.

Faith and prayer are the vitamins of the soul; man cannot live in health without them.