Don Cornelius Quotes

#1. I figured as long as the music stayed hot and important and good, that there would always be a reason for 'Soul Train.'

Don Cornelius

#2. There were three great child singing stars: Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Jackie Washington.

Don Cornelius

#3. All I really wanted was to be a full-time disc jockey.

Don Cornelius

#4. I always felt a love for music, but I never got my nerve up enough to try a musical instrument in school.

Don Cornelius

#5. It's always a pleasure to find something that matters.

Don Cornelius

#6. I had difficulty working for other people.

Don Cornelius

#7. The 'Soul Train' legacy and brand are of the utmost importance to me and to 'Soul Train's' millions of fans. After years of offers, I feel the time is now finally right to pass the torch.

Don Cornelius

#8. There was no match for Barry White. His music is just going to live forever. It's not limited to disco or soul or hip-hop or anything.

Don Cornelius

#9. Blacks on prime-time TV are only portrayed as comedians - and often in no better a light than 'Amos & Andy.'

Don Cornelius

#10. Almost all of what I learned about mounting and hosting a dance show I learned from Dick Clark.

Don Cornelius

#11. Soul music as we've always known it hasn't changed. There are different players now with different attitudes, but there is nothing new being done musically.

Don Cornelius

#12. My father worked real hard. I admired him. My father taught me you needed to work with your brain and not your back. I've made that a passion.

Don Cornelius

#13. People who dance well, dress well, are well groomed and know how to behave seem to know others who dance, dress and behave well.

Don Cornelius

#14. Black music is too big and too powerful not to have its own awards show.

Don Cornelius

#15. When I have a job to do, time means nothing. I lose patience with people who work on a clock.

Don Cornelius

#16. I was never exposed to a great deal of racism, but the Chicago I grew up in was very, very segregated.

Don Cornelius

#17. Love, peace and soul.

Don Cornelius

#18. I felt that it was my mission to see to it that black talent had an opportunity to get national television exposure.

Don Cornelius

#19. 'Soul Train' was developed as a radio show on television. It was the radio show that I always wanted and never had.

Don Cornelius

#20. I am just convinced that people want to see people on TV who are more like themselves.

Don Cornelius

#21. One motivation for the 'Soul Train' awards was the grumbling that all of us in the industry have heard about the way black music tends to be viewed as a secondary phenomenon by the other awards shows.

Don Cornelius

#22. MTV essentially killed 'American Bandstand' and 'Solid Gold,' because music videos are an easier way for pop artists to gain television exposure.

Don Cornelius

#23. The '70s and '80s were just the period during which the best soul music was created and the best records were done.

Don Cornelius

#24. Nobody really invents anything that hasn't been done before.

Don Cornelius

#25. Who's more important than Diana Ross?

Don Cornelius

#26. When you come up with a good idea, you don't have to do a whole lot. The idea does it for you.

Don Cornelius