“I usually listen to various kind of singers. Curtis Mayfield was my favorite. James Brown, Tina Turner, queen of soul, I started to get that musical essence from that time before I even do my first song.”
“I'm not a rich person financially, but I am in mind and soul. I have so much energy and strength, and I can do a lot of things that make me, and I think my fans, quite happy. When everything's gone, music alone shall live on.”
“I've been singing about love a long time now, because my kind of love carries a different flavor. My lyrics are not so outrageous as some. You have to think about a lot of different things. You get more mature with what you do - more experience, more capable, you know, the older you get.”
“Music is creation. In reggae the lyric, the music itself, arrangement, that vibe, such melody - everything within the music moves the people, understand?”
“My outspoken beliefs have been embraced, but I don't consider myself an activist. Maybe people consider me as that, but it's not anything outrageous or bad I can't live with.”
“People have been listening to Burning Spear for a long time now, and they know who I am and what I stand for. Yes, I do address many of the same ideas from album to album, adding only a little different flavor or coloring. Yes, the message has remained virtually the same because the issues haven't gone away yet.”
“The kind of music I'm dealing with is more a long-term music. Sometimes a little discourage runs along on your thought, but I am here to push it back. Discourage is a sign of weakness, and I don't like to be weak.”
“Whatever I do, I do for the universal. It's not like an individual thing; it's not like something from me. What I present to the people is for all of us, you know. I present music for the people.”
“When Marcus Garvey spoke about self-reliance, he wasn't only talking about people of colour. It's like self-reliance in general, for anyone. Just keep moving and moving within the right direction, and everything will be all right.”