Mavis Staples Singing Quotations

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.

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

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

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

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

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.