Mavis Staples Quotes

My mother gave me singing lessons; that was totally painful, because I couldn't do what she wanted to hear. She used to say: there's more there, there's more voice but I just didn't want to give it to her.

For one thing, I teach my students what my teacher for twenty years, Paul Gavert, told me, 'The voice follows... the voice follows everything about you... who you are.'

I find it difficult to explain, but I'm quite ashamed of being an actress.

The oboe is the most maddening thing of all time. I'm struggling to play something that my oboe teacher was doing when she was much younger than I am.

I've fallen over on stage a couple of times, but I've only ever bruised my ego.

I grew up singing. My mother was a music teacher.

Even Karaoke needs higher standards than I can reach, so I have gone great lengths to avoid being bullied into it.

I spent every day just praying that I didn't look like a big dork on camera.

I feel so very grateful to have the voice God gave me. It takes a lot of rest and training to sing, and I was lucky that I found a great teacher when I first moved to New York.

I started out singing in high school in the choir and in a garage band.

I don't even think my voice is really good.

It was what I did after school. I'd learn a song in choir that day and I'd sing it, all the parts.

Me and my three younger siblings, we sang together in grandma's church, and I was in the Chicago Children's Choir in high school, but I didn't think I had the voice to be a singer professionally.

When I started learning the violin, my choir teacher thought I could sing. But when I first got on stage, I froze!

I always enjoyed singing but I was never convinced that I had a big voice like that, that was distinctive, I just thought I can sing in the choir.

Nobody thought I could do anything with a singing career... except my singing teachers, who were accustomed to hearing voices that could be transformed into something.

On the first recording, I wasn't singing out that much; I was shy with my singing.

I left school just after my GCSEs, but I got good results so I proved to myself that I could do it.

I was fat and ugly. In school, I was disgustingly obese. I used to be the butt of ridicule, and that made me withdraw into a shell. It made me miserable, unsure of myself. I was far from confident.

I always sang after every dinner or when we had people over or when we had a show in school. I just loved to be on stage and sing in front of people.

I've been singing since I was a kid, but I take my voice a lot more personally than my acting. I feel a lot more personal criticism when somebody tells you that you don't have a good voice.

I sing all the time, and my co-actors from theatre arena feel that my choice of songs and timing is bad - not that I pay heed, though.

Singing is something that I have learnt. I have given exams for it.

I never had any singing lessons.

Once I got beat by Mayweather I felt so ashamed. I cancelled all my functions, all my appearances, I didn't want to walk down the street. I was too embarrassed to even go and have a pint with my mates.