Every time I do a gig, my goal is getting new fans.

Singing is my life. And when I can do that, that's when I'm free. That's when I'm at my happiest, I'm at my most.

I'm not going to sing something if it doesn't make sense to me, or if it makes me look like I'm begging someone or I'm weak, because that's not me.

I'm singing, you know, because I'm happy and I'm free.

Some people can sit down and write a song, but they can't go on stage like I can.

Play with me and you play with fire.

I'm going to keep on keeping on as long as I've got my health and strength, and God gives me that will to do it.

God's eye is on a sparrow. And I know - oh, yes, I know he watches over me...

Music is my happiness, my joy, and when my body wasn't right I couldn't get into my music without being healed, without being healthy.

When I'm on tour, I don't see these spots as much as I'd like. I'm just in, I perform, then I'm out. I hope to spend years sightseeing, then more years after that.

I miss my hair, but I feel like going out there with some fake braids wouldn't be right. I want to be the most genuine performer I can be.

Confession is good for the soul, it empties the spirit making more room for sin.

Do you feel it?Do you taste it??...That's going to be awesome nightmare!

Maybe you should just take it off up in my room and I can help you get dry.” He leaned in, his full lips right on my ear. “Or make you wetter.

Moral courage is higher and a rarer virtue than physical courage.

It is natural that affluence should be followed by influence.

And that is a hard route for a woman to come through. There's still a lot of roles that have to be conformed to. It's quite an old fashioned environment in a lot of ways.

State government has too often been used to look out for the insiders and not the citizens. This has insulated poverty from progress, and need from remedy.

I don't spend my hours plotting for somebody else's downfall.

I suppose because our hearts are made in a certain way we cannot help being what we are.

The subject of pain is the business I am in - to give meaning and shape to frustration and suffering. The existence of pain cannot be denied. I propose no remedies or excuses.