You have a right to your opinion and I've got a right to mine. Period.

The world would never amount to a hill of beans if people didn't use their imaginations to think of the impossible.

Alan Lomax is the person who I think should be given major credit for what has been called the "Folk Song Revival." My father participated with him because my father was a musicologist and urged trained musicians to learn about "the vernacular."

I feel that my whole life is a contribution.

When I am chopping trees out in the woods because I heat my house with wood, I feel myself right in the middle of God. Mahalia Jackson said "I have seen God. I have seen the sun rise." So, in a sense, when anyone looks in the mirror, they look at an infinitesimally small part of God.

I have sung for Americans of every political persuasion, and I am proud that I never refuse to sing to an audience, no matter what religion or color of their skin, or situation in life.

One of the things I'm most proud of about my country is the fact that we did lick McCarthyism back in the fifties.