One thing about playing the real jazz is that you can't count it.

The Lord doesn't like us to be dead. Be alive. Sometimes I dance to the glory of the Lord, because He said so.

I don't worry too much about the script, I just ad lib, like Pearl Bailey.

This is the place to see the stars - Hollywood Bowl.

Put your mind on the gospel. And remember - there's one God for all.

Everybody needs somebody.

Without a song, each day would be a century.

When you are through with the blues, you've got nothing to rest on.

I'll come to any benefit if I see SCLC get all the money.

When you sing gospel you have a feeling there is a cure for what's wrong.

They thought I was a success as soon as I started paying the bills.

Anybody that sings the blues is in a deep pit, yelling for help.

I close my eyes when I sing so I can feel the song better.

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

My hands, my feet, I throw my whole body to say all that is within me.

Blues are the songs of despair, but gospel songs are the songs of hope.

Baby, black promoters oppressed me before white promoters ever got hold of me. Don't talk skin to me.

Money just draws flies.

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!

God can make you anything you want to be, but you have to put everything in his hands.

The old Devil gets mad when you're trying to do good. Pray that God will move the stumbling blocks.

How can you sing of amazing grace and all God's wonders without using your hands?

I hope to bring people to God with my songs.

Do you know most of the Jewish songs have the same trend of sadness as Negro spirituals?

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

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

It is easy to be independent when you've got money. But to be independent when you haven't got a thing, that's the Lord's test.

One thing about playing the real jazz is that you can't count it.

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

You're blessed if you have the strength to work.

The mind and the voice by themselves are not sufficient.

Anybody singing the blues is in a deep pit yelling for help.

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

If you believe in God, He will open the windows of heaven and pour blessings upon you.

When you are through with the blues youve got nothing to rest on.

Blues are the songs of despair but gospel songs are the songs of hope.

Its easy to be independent when youve got money. But to be independent when you havent got a thing thats the Lords test.

It's easy to be independent when you've got money. But to be independent when you haven't got a thing—that's the Lord's test.

The blues is the foundation, and it's got to carry the top. The other part of the scene, the rock 'n' roll and the jazz, are the walls of the blues.

What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man.

In my view a jazz musician is a great musician.

Words are the children of reason and, therefore, can't explain it. They really can't translate feeling because they're not part of it. That's why it bugs me when people try to analyze jazz as an intellectual theorem. It's not. It's feeling.

So our ears got used to listening to jazz in the place that it was that the bass player could not play. No one really realized it and really addressed it until the bass players who could play their instrument came along and started doing something with it.

It is veneer, rouge, aestheticism, art museums, new theaters, etc. that make America impotent. The good things are football, kindness, and jazz bands.

Humans are imperfect. That's one of the reasons that classical and jazz are in trouble. We're on the quest for the perfect performance and every note has to be right. Man, every note is not right in life.

I hate Stanley Clark, but I have to admit he's playing Jazz whether I like it or not.

I have to plead basic ignorance of most new jazz artists here.

If one takes all the styles in jazz harmonically from the earliest beginnings to the latest experiments, he still has a rather limited scope when compared to the rest of music in the world.

I don't know who's 18 years old today that, 20 years hence, is going to be a jazz fan.