I was reared in the church from the age of three. I've played piano since I was three. I performed at revivals and for my people around North Carolina for several years. People around town collected money to send me to school.

My job is not done. I address my songs now to the third world. I am popular all over Asia and Africa and the Middle East, not to speak of South Africa, where I'm trying to go to see Nelson Mandela.

I feel what they feel. And people who listen to me know that, and it makes them feel like they're not alone.

I can't stand loud guitars that make me deaf.

This is the world you have made yourself, now you have to live in it.

My love is like the wind and wild is the wind. Give me more than one caress, satisfy my hungriness. Let the wind blow through your heart for wild is the wind.

I can read and arrange, but I can't write.