Quotes

Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn't mean he lacks vision.

Before I ride with somebody who's been drinking, I'll drive myself.

I just dig audiences. That to me is the most worthwhile thing about this whole business. Just people coming to have a good time and letting me sing for them.

I do believe in women. I really do.

I am not a normal man.

I am all for stem cell research.

For the most part, I feel really comfortable with what I've given to the people. I want to give it to them again.

First of all, I'm no better than the next person.

Blind don't mean you can't, you know, listen.

Time is long but life is short.

Eyes lie if you ever look into them for the character of the person.

Clearly, love is love, between a man and a woman, a woman and a man, a woman and a woman and a man and a man.

What I'm not confused about is the world needing much more love, no hate, no prejudice, no bigotry and more unity, peace and understanding. Period.

I am what I am. I love me! And I don't mean that egotistically - I love that God has allowed me to take whatever it was that I had and to make something out of it.

Life has meaning only in the struggle. Triumph or defeat is in the hands of the Gods. So let us celebrate the struggle!

Ya gots to work with what you gots to work with.

Minds ripen at very different ages.

Do you know, it's funny, but I never thought of being blind as a disadvantage, and I never thought of being black as a disadvantage.

God gave me life to continue to do things that I would never have done.

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.

Music, at its essence, is what gives us memories. And the longer a song has existed in our lives, the more memories we have of it.

You can't base your life on other people's expectations.

Mama was my greatest teacher, a teacher of compassion, love and fearlessness. If love is sweet as a flower, then my mother is that sweet flower of love.

You know, I always when people ask me, like, what is my most favorite song, I quote Duke Ellington, when they would ask him, what's his favorite composition? And I say, I haven't written it yet. Because, you know, there are different songs for different occasions.

This is like one thing that I've tried to do, and I think successfully, that when you realize that nothing really belongs to you, you begin to appreciate having an understanding of just where your head is at, and you feel so much better.

I remember the beginnings of the Kurzweil reading machine. I was one of the first to meet Ray Kurzweil and purchase the reading machine in Boston. To think that the machine was at least two and a half large suitcases at the time, and now you have a camera and it takes a picture and you have sound.

I can't say that I'm always writing in my head but I do spend a lot of time in my head writing or coming up with ideas. And what I do usually is write the music and melody and then, you know, maybe the basic idea. But when I feel that I don't have a song or just say, God, please give me another song. And I just am quiet and it happens.

You know, I have seven children, so I guess I know some things about life.

The right to bear arms? What about the right to live?

Sometimes I wish I could drive a car, but I'm gonna drive a car one day, so I don't worry about that.

Some people have a desire to be with the same sex. But that's them.

People can misconstrue closeness for love.

Of course I read Braille, yes.

No one has been a greater advocate for the power of love in this world than I; both in my life and in my music.

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

Let us come together before we're annihilated.

I've had threats.

I've had some incredibly triumphal things happen in my life.

I'm still experimenting.

I am all for anything that is going to better equip a person who is physically challenged in any way, to have an opportunity to be able to do what they are able to do.

Sometimes, I feel I am really blessed to be blind because I probably would not last a minute if I were able to see things.

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.

If you don't ask, you don't get.

I think honestly, some people who think they're gay, they're confused.

I'm concerned about how accessible guns are.

I want to take all the pain that I feel and celebrate and turn it around.

I might do something in Arabic. I might do something in Hebrew.

I know there are thousands of images of me.

I guess people expect or figure me to be a lot of different things.

Until the 'Stand Your Ground' law is abolished in Florida, I will never perform there again.