“I woke up when I was 14 and went to speak to my mother and scared us both to death.”

We forget that this music, music made by my brothers and sisters, is still a baby. It’s just beginning. When I think of the possibilities, it makes me smile.

I’m so thankful that your mine, your sweetness is my weakness.

You’re the first, the last, and my everything and the answer to all my dreams. You’re my sun, my moon, my guiding star, my kind of wonderful, that’s what you are

As a boy, I believed freedom for America meant freedom for me. There was a time I believed every word spoken.

Mama tried to save us from the streets, but the streets were too strong.

There’s a time when people give their words to each other it has to mean something. I’m a street cat. I’ve belonged in gangs and when you had a partner, you went down with your partner whether you won the fight or lost it. You went down together.

I’ve always loved War’s Low Rider and Sly Stone’s Thank You, and I just wanted to put my take on them.

A kid who was on welfare, because he refused to steal anybody’s property or take anybody’s money. You found life a lot tougher.

Elton John’s opinion turned the label’s opinion around, all in a day.

I went to jail at 16 for stealing tires off Cadillacs. When I got out I said, Never again.

I didn’t mind working in the clubs, but I resented it being a club where pimps hang out. Because the music that I create is of a higher intellect than that. It not only encompasses pimps, but whores, ballplayers, executives… everybody.

Blacks own so little of the music business, it’s pathetic. But I see that changing soon. Black artists, black businessmen and women will unite.

When I commit, I commit with my whole heart, my whole being. I know the Bible like the back of my hand.

I quit high school on my birthday. It was my senior year and I didn’t see the point. This was 1962, and I was ready to make music.

No one could understand the bond between me and my brother. I struggled to understand the forces that drove his soul in one direction and mine in another.

The women used the music to get their men to relate to them better: “talk to me, tell me what’s on your mind.”

Too often we are scared. Scared of what we might not be able to do. Scared of what people might think if we tried. We let fears stand in the way of our hopes. We say no when we want to say yes. We sit quietly when we want to scream.

I was really scared to stay home alone when I was kid, and I would freak out whenever there was a noise after my parents left.

Be scared. You can’t help that. But don’t be afraid.

There are no sacred and unsacred places; there are only sacred and desecrated places.

Eartha Mae is very shy. She’s scared to be seen, scared of rejection and even afraid of affection.

I’m not scared of Tiger. I’m not scared to go head-to-head. I’m not scared to have a long-drive contest with him.

I don’t see the risk, I enjoy performing stunts, and I don’t get scared.

You can never know what is and what is not powerful, but you can always find out what the powerful people are scared of.