I got a wife who likes expensive things, so she takes all the cash.

I’m kidding about having only a few dollars. I might have a few dollars more.

I’m not going to be joining ZZ Top. You know they can’t play my stuff. It’s too complicated.

I was stillborn. The midwives laid me aside, thought I was really gone. I laid there about an hour, and they picked me back up and tried again, ‘cause my body was still warm. The Good Lord brought me back.

Like Christ said, love thee one another. I learned to do that, and I learned to respect and be appreciative and thankful for what I had.

If you don’t get it the first time, back up and try it again.

You got to use what you got to get just what you want.

I’d like to cut down on the work a little bit.

It doesn’t matter how you travel it, it’s the same road. It doesn’t get any easier when you get bigger, it gets harder. And it will kill you if you let it.

Sometimes I feel like I’m a preacher as well, ’cause I can really get into an audience.

You only live once.

Music, it requires more than brawn. It requires a lot of heart. You gotta put love in there.

I’ve got soul and I’m super bad.

My expectations of other people, I double them on myself.

Got ants in my pants and I need to dance, so big fine mama, come give me a chance.

The hardest thing about being James Brown is I have to live. I don’t have no down time.

I taught them everything they know, but not everything I know.

My music wasn’t written by Mozart, Beethoven, Bach or Schubert. It’s written by God and me. They go “a one and a two and up.” We start on the downbeat. Bam! And that’s where we got them.

Takes a man or a woman to say I’m sorry, and it takes a fool to walk away.

You got to live for yourself, yourself and nobody else.

The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing.

I think the best thing about being James Brown is looking at my little son. Hopefully I can make my son a role model to a lot of people.

Don’t terrorize. Organize. Don’t burn. Give kids a chance to learn . . . The real answer to race problems in this country is education. Not burning and killing. Be ready. Be qualified. Own something. Be somebody. That’s Black Power.

I’ve been held responsible for taxes I know nothing about.

I don’t know karate, but I know crazy.

I just thank God for all of the blessings.

My son don’t have to say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud. He don’t have to be called those crazy names.

I had to tell about my colonic, which expresses the fact why I’m so neat today as opposed to a few years ago. I never knew that the weight made that much difference.

I want to say to you: Help yourself, so you can help someone else.

You can’t teach others if you are living the same way.