Basically I'm always singing about the same stuff whether it's in a loud or quiet outfit.

I have been a provoker and I'll probably always be one in the public arena for the rest of my life.

It's like soul music, isn't it all soul music? Otherwise what is it, non-soul music? I-have-no-soul music? Soulless music? People need to put a name on something to identify it, and I understand it.

I really love that type of music where someone can take a guitar or light instrumentation and a beautiful voice and can send me somewhere.

The pleasure of other people is a byproduct of the pleasure that comes from yourself so I cannot judge or look down on someone who does whatever they feel like doing.

Anything lower than mid-six figures is not going to get me interested in that. And honestly, I just don't want to.

If tears were liquor/ I'd have drunk myself sick.

I've never presented myself as anything less than a flawed person.

When you get a chance to play with people - informally is one thing, but when you hook up and make something that's going to last or mean something to someone, I take it very seriously.

I'm a very private person. What I did in the past or what somebody heard me do or has a bootleg of me doing...well, if you have a bootleg, then I did it.

I think you can find yourself in life perhaps not really being the master of your own life and it is within your own will and tenacity whether you switch the roles or not.

No other work of man in any language even faintly resembles the intricate structure and design of the Bible. The fact remains – only an infinite mind could have devised this Book of books.

When it comes to fighting for your rights don't fold hands but turn them into fists.

Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.

There is no end to the undeserved misery and mischief it could create.

Poverty wants some things, Luxury many things, Avarice all things

Every theatre worth anything has somebody in the middle of it who is driving it; like Joan Littlewood with her theatre.

I like somebody who makes me laugh. He's also got to be prepared - I'm sort of a loose cannon, in a good way. I also like people who disagree with me and make me work to prove my point.

He aint heavy, he's my brother.

My husband is almost as heavy as I am. We were married in adjoining churches.

Yes, ISIS is a threat. It's more than a nuisance. It's also in many respects criminal violence. But it isn't, in my view, a central strategic issue facing humanity.