I demand perfection in what I do, and I practice very hard before I give a concert-sometimes three to six hours a day.

You've got to learn to leave the table When love's no longer being served".

I tell you what freedom is to me: no fear.

What kept me sane was knowing that things would change, and it was a question of keeping myself together until they did.

You can't help it. An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times.

Life is short. People are not easy to know. They're not easy to know, so if you don't tell them how you feel, you're not going to get anywhere, I feel.

You have to learn to get up from the table when love is not being served.

Talent is a burden not a joy. I am not of this planet. I do not come from you. I am not like you.

How do you explain what it feels like to get on the stage and make poetry that you know sinks into the hearts and souls of people who are unable to express it

There's no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were.

Slavery has never been abolished from America's way of thinking.

Secret of success is found in your regular actions

There are many people who say there's a God somewhere up there but, God is nothing more than a formula. Just a part of some law of physics that we have yet to understand.

The cause of laughter is simply the sudden perception of the incongruity between a concept and the real project.

I have six-year-old fans that weren't even around for 'Genie in a Bottle' or even 'Fighter.'

Intrinsic motivation is conducive to creativity; controlling extrinsic motivation is detrimental to creativity.

Anatomy is to physiology as geography is to history; it describes the theatre of events.

Something will eventually replace the Internet. But it's hard to know what and when it will happen.

Sometimes the shadow stays next to the Light. Sometimes it disappears into the Light

Even in the midst of devastation, something within us always points the way to freedom.

In the commercial theater, I've been pretty fortunate. The producers that I've worked with have allowed me to define the artistic integrity, the artistic limits of the work.