Trends don't mean very much.

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.

If your work isn't exciting, doesn't stir the emotions, where's the challenge? Where's the progress if you always play it safe?

You’re never a loser until you quit trying.

We're in this transition period of figuring out how to deal with all the new technology that is out there, but television still proves to be the granddaddy of them all.

Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty.

I always believe a woman should have 5 non-negotiables that she should stick to when attracting a mate. If the guy does not have these five major things - then she should not give the guy a chance as she's wasting her time. The rest is up to the magic and wiggle room the universe gives.

A noble truth is a sacred creed.

In my grandfather's time, the FN was founded largely as an anti-Communist party.

I've spent hours and hours doing research into Appalachian folk music. My grandfather was a fiddler. There is something very immediate, very simple and emotional, about that music.

The really poor man is not the one who lacks money, but the one who lacks the joy of the heart.

When you are in the valley, keep your goal firmly in view and you will get the renewed energy to continue the climb.

If those of us who care about making our own decisions about what to read and what to think don't take a stand, others will decide for us.

Life doesn't stop because something happens to you.

Laugh and the world laughs with you snore and you sleep alone.

Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty it is not only needless but impairs what it would improve.

With 24-hour news... the story moves on with the media.

Your emotions are powerful when you use them the right way. Thats why emotionless people wont be all they could be.

Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

Men must turn square corners when they deal with the Government.

Rock-and-roll, to me, is very serious because we deal with the young people. We deal with people who need something, and that's the same thing that a preacher does. He feeds you something that you need spiritually in your soul and in your makeup.

Unfortunately, we are living in an era where plenty of songs with vulgar, objectionable lyrics are also becoming popular. It's a disturbing trend, and I feel really sad when I see small kids dancing to such numbers in television shows. In my career so far, I have refused any song whose lyrics I haven't been comfortable with.

British fans are exceptional, but the American fans are something else. Some of them fly 500 miles to stand in line for three hours, just to meet me, then when they do they collapse.

By the time Clinton graduated from Yale Law School, many people, including her boyfriend Bill, believed she could, and should, embark on a political career. She'd given the Wellesley commencement speech that had earned her a 'Life' write-up of her own.

A lot of people don't love their bank.

My story starts with my dad, a black boy born to a single mother in a small town in North Carolina. It starts with my parents meeting in Washington, D.C., in the '60s, at a time of incredible activism.