“If you want me to sing this Christmas song with the feeling and the me...” — Mahalia Jackson Quote

“If you want me to sing this Christmas song with the feeling and the meaning, you better see if you can locate that check.”

“Gospel music rhythms are not African in origin, although I know that's what the jazz experts say.”

“Baby, black promoters oppressed me before white promoters ever got hold of me. Don't talk skin to me.”

“Accounts of eating Christmas sweet potatoes baked in ashes and jackrabbit stewed with white flour dumplings are testaments to pioneer resilience and pleasure - and they help inspire my own best scratch cooking.”

“Christmas is the season I use to clock failure in life. It stops time, as it were, on the year - where you are in it, where you are in your travail unto the grave.”

“Christmas is not a time for laughter. Christmas is a time for pain.”