A song is like a picture of a bird in flight; the bird was moving before the picture was taken, and no doubt continued after.

We all go to different churches or no churches, we have different favorite foods, different ways of making love, different ways of doing all sorts of things, but there we're all singing together. Gives you hope.

It was only through the years that I realized what an absolutely extraordinarily thoughtful person Dr. King was.

There is no such thing as a wrong note ... just as long as you're singing along.

I was working for Alan Lomax in the Library of Congress folk song archive, and starting to realize what a wealth of different kinds of music there was in this country that you never heard on the radio.

I have sung in hobo jungles, and I have sung for the Rockefellers, and I am proud that I have never refused to sing for anybody.

Again, I say I will be glad to tell what songs I have ever sung, because singing is my business.