Too many of us still believe our differences define us.

We're one people, and we all live in the same house. Not the American house, but the world house.

Be hopeful. Be optimistic. Never lose that sense of hope.

Never become bitter, and in the process, be happy and just go for it.

We all live in the same house, we all must be part of the effort to hold down our little house. When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just... do something about it. Say something. Have the courage. Have the backbone. Get in the way. Walk with the wind. It's all going to work out.

You cannot be at home with something that you feel that is wrong, is not right.

I believe in forgiveness; I believe in trying to work with people.

I always felt growing up that in the South there was evil but also good - so much good.

I am very, very hopeful about the American South - I believe that we will lead America to what Dr. King called 'the beloved community.'

I travel all the time, but when I come back to the South, I see such progress. In a real sense, a great deal of the South has been redeemed. People feel freer, more complete, more whole, because of what happened in the movement.

People come up to me in airports, they walk into the office, and they say, 'I'm going to cry; I'm going to pass out.' And I say, 'Please don't pass out; I'm not a doctor.'

I grew up very poor in rural Alabama.

When I was 15 years old in 1955, I heard of Rosa Parks. I heard the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. on our radio.

The action of Rosa Parks, the words and leadership of Dr. King inspired me. I was deeply inspired. I wanted to do something.

You have to be optimistic in order to continue to move forward.

In 1965, the attempted march from Selma to Montgomery on March 7 was planned to dramatize to the state of Alabama and to the nation that people of color wanted to register to vote.

A few days after Bloody Sunday, there was demonstration in more than 80 American cities. People were demanding that the government act.

I studied the philosophy and the discipline of non-violence in Nashville as a student. And I staged a sitting-in in the fall of 1959 and got arrested the first time in February 1960.

I was honored to have an opportunity to speak on August 28th, 1963.

I think Dr. King would be pleased to see the number of elected officials of color - African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and progressive whites.

The March on Washington was a March for Jobs and Freedom. There are still too many people who are unemployed or underemployed in America - they're black, white, Latino, Native American and Asian American.

We need comprehensive immigration reform. Dr. King wouldn't be pleased at all to know that there are millions of people living in the shadow, living in fear in places like Georgia and Alabama.

It's not just Barack Obama, but I doubt Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton would have made it to the White House without Selma.

Without our faith, we wouldn't have been able to succeed. On many occasions, before we'd go out on a sit-in, before we went on the freedom ride, before we marched from Selma to Montgomery, we would sing a song or say a prayer. Without our faith, without the spirit and spiritual bearings and underpinning, we would not have been so successful.

Without prayer, without faith in the Almighty, the civil rights movement would have been like a bird without wings.

I grew up in rural Alabama, 50 miles from Montgomery, in a very loving, wonderful family: wonderful mother, wonderful father. We attended church; we went to Sunday school every Sunday.

We need someone who will stand up and speak up and speak out for the people who need help, for people who are being discriminated against. And it doesn't matter whether they are black or white, Latino, Asian or Native American, whether they are straight or gay, Muslim, Christian, or Jews.

When I was growing up in rural Alabama, it was impossible for me to register to vote. I didn't become a registered voter until I moved to Tennessee, to Nashville, as a student.

Black men and women were not allowed to register to vote. My own mother, my own father, my grandfather and my uncles and aunts could not register to vote because each time they attempted to register to vote, they were told they could not pass the literacy test.

We had teachers, we had high school principals, we had people teaching in colleges and university in Tuskegee, Alabama. But they were told they failed the so-called literacy test.

The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. made me very, very sad, and I mourned and I cried like many of our citizens did.

Sometimes you have to not just dream about what could be - you get out and push and you pull and you preach. And you create a climate and environment to get those in high places, to get men and women of good will in power to act.

You have to be persistent.

The party of Kennedy is also the party of Eastland. The party of Javits is also the party of Goldwater.

I don't think Trump really believes in all this stuff. But he thinks this would be his ticket to the White House - at least to get the Republican nomination.

In Selma, Alabama, in 1965, only 2.1 percent of blacks of voting age were registered to vote. The only place you could attempt to register was to go down to the courthouse. You had to pass a so-called literacy test. And they would tell people over and over again that they didn't or couldn't pass the literacy test.

When I'm writing a lyric, things can only get so serious before they start becoming humorous.

My sense of humor has saved me more than a couple of times in my life.

If I can make myself laugh about something that I should be crying about, that's pretty good.

I sound like that old guy down the street that doesn't chase you out of his apple tree.

I think I've finally, after 72 years, gotten used to my voice, and it sounds like a friend now instead of an enemy.

I feel basically good about my career because it's remained constant. What I do has never been especially in vogue or gotten high on the charts. At the same time, I haven't had to stop performing any of my music because it aged in style.

Because of my song 'Sam Stone,' a lot of people thought I was interested in writing protest songs. Writing protest songs always struck me as patting yourself on the back.

I used to read a lot of Steinbeck, and I admired Roger Miller and Bob Dylan.

People keep inventing all these new machines, and producers and recording engineers keep wanting to use them.

The more producers I talked to, the more I got looked at like I was crazy for wanting to make a live-sounding album.

In high school, I was a poor student.

'Sam Stone' is a song about futility.

I did three club tours before I started playing concert halls, and the clubs were half full the first time around.

I take my own syrup, ketchup, and mustard, just in case of emergencies, in my suitcase. Whatever I can steal from the hotels. It's usually Heinz ketchup, and they give you a weird mustard. You don't get French's or anything; you get some sort of Dijon or some mustard. That's just for hot dogs. I don't use mustard for anything else.