There weren't any white people in this country who didn't know who Gladys Knight was. Or the Pips were, as far as that's concerned.

Life is too short to harbor any hostilities towards anybody.

I never want to fake it. That's my whole thing.

It doesn't mean that I won't be sexy or hip or anything like that.

The line between greatness and obscurity is very, very small.

In the last couple of years I've been picking up my guitar again.

But my attitude about it is I have miles to go before I sleep.

I mean, on the food chain, do instruments really rate? I don't think so.

Music should probably provide answers in terms of lyrical content, and giving people a sense of togetherness and oneness, as opposed to being alone in their thoughts and dilemmas or regrets or happiness or whatever.

I like that sense of we're all on the same page and trying to get the job done.

There was a time in American history when almost every white person knew who Aretha Franklin was.

I think you create your own hipness.

I adore being with Roberta. I adore being in her spiritual light. I adore being close to her talent and gifts.

I have to choose songs that represent my personality.

If you think about it, everything we do in life is set to some kind of music.

There weren't any white people in this country who didn't know who Gladys Knight was. Or the Pips were, as far as that's concerned.

I'm having fun just being a musician as well as an artist at this point.

I'd sing with Roberta Flack in a taxi if you called up and said she'd be in it.

For me, the other thing is not just a strong sense of spirituality.

If you have a Stradivarius and nobody to play it, it's just a Stradivarius. Or is it even that? It's nothing.

Trends don't mean very much.

I'm not angry at anyone.

If you think about it, Aretha did basically the same things that I do.

Every significant event that takes place in our lives is set to some kind of music.

But like the rest of the country, Maine has reached an impasse, for most of the mercury that fouls our skies, waters and land comes from outside our borders.

Education is the cornerstone of our communities and our country.

For a country to have a great writer is like having another government. That's why no regime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones.

The successful establishment of a buffer zone around Fort Carson will provide an example for other bases around the country as we seek to protect the training mission of the U.S. military while preserving critical habitats on our ranges.

Then, in that hour of deliverance, my heart spoke. Does not such a country, and such defenders of their country, deserve a song?

Prosperous farmers mean more employment, more prosperity for the workers and the business men of every industrial area in the whole country.

You look at the whole Human Rights questions, I happened to be there at just the right time when the country was awakening - this goes to the first question you asked - the whole country was awakening to a hundred years of injustice that hadn't been resolved yet.

It may be shocking to some people in this country to realize that, without meaning to do so, they hold views in common with Hitler when they preach discrimination against other religious, racial or economic groups.

So, for example, a country was into recession right after I was sworn in, a dot-com bust had taken place. Then the attacks of September the 11th, and then of course the great financial meltdown in the -the fundamental question facing any presidency is how do you deal with the hand you're dealt?

And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

The day cold and fair with a high easterly wind: we were visited by two Indians who gave us an account of the country and people near the Rocky mountains where they had been.

It was clear that the special interest groups in California really wanted the Chinese to be shut out of the country, because that was where the racial tension was the greatest.

Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.

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.

Disney had such a hold on the mind of America-they were Adolf Hitler. The whole country thought Disney was some sort of god and that animation was some sort of pure thing for children.

To stop terrorists before the strike, we must do three things: deny them entry into the country, curtail their freedom of action inside the country, and deprive them of material and moral support from within the country.

As I think through the issue of funding the rebuilding of Iraq, I think about the analogy of a bankruptcy proceeding. There is no doubt that Iraq as a country is bankrupt.

I have some strategical vision, I could calculate some few moves ahead and I have an intellect that is badly missed in the country which is run by generals and colonels.

Yesterday in this country we had people die of hunger and malnutrition. In some parts of this country, the infant mortality rate rivals that of sub-Saharan Africa. We have a public education system that ranks below that of almost any other Western nation.

When I reached adulthood, even now, I could afford to belong to a country club. But I could never belong to a private club because of my experience as a child, because it would isolate me from the whole of humanity.

The Clinton administration launched an attack on people in Texas because those people were religious nuts with guns. Hell, this country was founded by religious nuts with guns. Who does Bill Clinton think stepped ashore on Plymouth Rock?

The whole country is one vast insane asylum and they're letting the worst patients run the place.

It's like our country is being run by a bunch of bad alcoholic dads right now.

The way was long and weary, But gallantly they strode, A country lad and lassie, Along the heavy road.

Nobody in this country realizes that cap-and-trade is a tax - and it's a great big one.