Mavis Staples quotes:

I get my voice from my mother's side of the family. My mother and my grandmother both had strong voices.

I have to pinch myself sometimes. It's unbelievable, but it's not. Because I know that this would not be happening if it hadn't been for Dr. Martin Luther King.

The best music of my life I heard at my grandmother's church, this little wooden church up on a hill.

My purpose: to lift your spirit and to motivate you.

We've had a great change. Dr King saw to that. I was so grateful to see the 'colored only' signs come off the water fountains and bathrooms in the south. But the struggle lives on.

It's been an amazing life. It's really just been the most magical thing for me - and I have these musical friends from all walks of life.

My high-school a cappella teacher would embarrass me in front of the choir. 'Mavis, you're in the basement. Mavis, you're singing with the boys.' I said, 'Mr. Finch, my voice isn't soprano. I can't sing up there with the girls.' So I just got out of the choir.

The kids today have these fresh faces. It's like they're on pins and needles, waiting to see what I'm going to do. They've never seen me. In the 1960s, those were hippies. They were wired up already. The kids today know me because I've worked with Jeff Tweedy and other young producers.

I feel so good singing songs that I sang with my father.

When I come out of my dressing room, I go to my heart and say a little prayer and go out on stage. There I am, coming to lift you up and to motivate you. I want to bring joy. It's gospel, and gospel is the truth. It's what I do. I'm going to bring you the truth and lift up your spirit.

I never sang for a Grammy, for money, for fame. That's my whole purpose for singing: for people, for the fans.

I've got to sing for Pops; I've got to keep my father's legacy alive because he started all of this. So I started calling people, and nobody would give me a chance, but I didn't let that stop me. I took money out the bank and I started making me a record, and I did it in this guy's basement.

The devil ain't got no music. All music is God's music.

I have fun just about everywhere I go.

I'm singing these songs to inspire you, to keep you going, to lift you up and give you a reason to get up in the morning.

I would get in fights a lot. My voice was so heavy, kids would say you sound like a boy, so I would start beating them up.

I'm just singing what I feel in my heart.

I'm singing these songs to inspire you, to keep you going, to lift you up and give you a reason to get up in the morning

My uncle was 16, in junior high, and he heard me singing and snatched me off the stage. I thought he was happy and was going to pat me on the head and say I was good. But he took me home and told my grandmother this youngin' was at school singing the blues.

I just had a wonderful life, and I couldn't ask for anything else.

I started writing letters home to my mother, saying that I wanted to come home, grandma won't let me sing.

I was not fortunate enough to run into Obama. We were at the same church per se, but I would never be there when he was there.

I won't wear rings and jewelry on the stage because I don't want you looking at my hands. I want you hearing what I'm saying.

If I wasn't my age, I would turn a flip. I would do some cartwheels. That's how I feel.

I'm old enough to be Obama's grandmom. But I still like seeing good-looking things. Nothing wrong with that.

Music is such a joy, just an absolute joy.

One day, when I was about eight years old, some kids pushed me on stage at school during a talent show because they knew I could sing.

There is a great feeling in a small venue, with the closeness of the people and the intimacy.

There's still injustice happening in my world. I sing my songs at concerts and I'm so grateful that the people are ready to hear them.

We enjoyed the fact that we were called to the folk festivals and we got to know Joan Baez, Dylan. We were singing strictly gospel, but then after we started hearing songs that they would sing, we saw that those songs were very fitting for us because they were singing the truth, and truth is gospel.

Well Lord, I'm still on the case. I'm still doing what Dr. King and Pops want me to do. I'm still on that freedom highway, and I'm going to walk on it until Dr. King's dream is realized.

Whenever somebody tells me they want me to stop singing, I'm gone.