All my children are my babies. They're our babies.

My mother would cry about my blindness and the hopelessness of my ever seeing, but I told her I wasn't sad. I believed God had something for me to do.

There're songs to make you smile, there're songs to make you sad. But with a happy song to sing it never seems as bad.

My father really was not the dominant person who raised the family, it was my mother who raised the family.

Kenny Burrell is a great musician and his music has helped to make me what I am today.

I never imagined I'd meet Berry Gordy who told me when he first heard me sing, "You know, your singing's okay, but I like your harmonica playing better."

My mother had a rule, obviously, that I couldn't go across the street by myself, but I had to find a way of doing it.