I believe there are certain things that God uses to get us out of a bad situation, and I believe music was one of the things he used for me.

I know who I am. I am not perfect. I'm not the most beautiful woman in the world. But I'm one of them.

I listen to gospel music.

I don't know. Only God knows where the story ends for me, but I know where the story begins. It's up to us to choose, whether we win or lose and I choose to win.

I have to have lemon and honey. I have to have apple cider vinegar, Braggs. And I have to have either Red Vines or Twizzlers. These things, you know, are the things that help my vocal performance.

There's so many things that life is, and no matter how many breakthroughs, trials will exist and we're going to get through it. Just be strong.

If you're looking for inner peace from the outside world, you're not going to get that. The inner peace starts with looking at you from the inside.

Negative words are powerful boomerangs so be careful what you say about people and yourself.

When you come from so many damaged places you don't ever want to spiral back there, so you gotta continue to check yourself.

Believe in yourself when nobody else does.

When life is real, it's not going to be smooth.

If you're using most of your energy to do stuff for your kids, then you'll have that much less energy to just be there for them.

There was no beginning, middle and end to destiny, it wasn't neat and manageable. It was random and scary and if it wanted to it would.

Human resources are just tremendous in Egypt but we need the science base.

History has shown us time and again that what is right is not what is popular.

The abhorrence of loneliness is as natural as wanting to live at all.

If I can create the minimum of my plans and desires there shall be no regrets.

I am sure you have met diplomats; they probably travel far less than you do. Okay, they get to know a place very intensely - sometimes only the capitol city.

I've always assumed it to be an absolute requirement for being a writer: to find all emotions and the sources of all behaviors somewhere within yourself.

When I'm running, I'm looking for contact. It's kind of weird. It brings a fire to me. When I get older I'll probably get wise and not do that.

I think narrators expect a high level of intimacy with their readers, and vice versa.