I just want you inside, baby, we don't need to talk about promises.

I'm convinced that we Black women possess a special indestructible strength that allows us to not only get down, but to get up, to get through, and to get over.

People do see me as sweet and innocent. Not to say that I am not those things. But I have other sides to me.

Competition is great. And as long as it's friendly and not a malicious thing, then I think it's cool.

I don't believe in luck. ... It's persistence, hard work, and not forgetting your dream.

I can be happy with who I am, not what I should be, or what I might have been, or what someone tells me I must be.

Believe in yourself. Have faith in yourself because no one else is going to.

It has taken me most of my adult life to come to terms with who I am. To do that, I had to break free of attitudes that brought me down.

In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you.

The greatest achievement to any human being is to love God, yourself, and others.

Every body type is different - that's what makes you unique. What makes you special is you, and you are different from the next person.

That fighting of a battle without belief is, I think, the sorriest task which ever falls to the lot of any man.

That’s why it’s difficult to write about your own life. Any distortion feels like a betrayal.

People will frighten you about a graduation....They use words you don't hear often.

Fame and success are very different things.

I didn't pay close enough scrutiny to some of the other things that Louis Farrakhan was saying, that's something I just live and learn.

Trying to understand is like straining through muddy water. Be still and allow the mud to settle.

America has believed that in differentiation, not in uniformity, lies the path of progress. It acted on this belief; it has advanced human happiness, and it has prospered.

Everything works out the way the universe wants it to work out.

The saxophone is an imperfect instrument, especially the tenor and soprano, as far as intonation goes. The challenge is to sing on an imperfect instrument that is outside of your body.