I'm no different than you.

I can't do some of the songs that younger girls like Mary J. Blige and Beyonce are doing. They have their own place and I have my own place.

I know how to put it on when it comes to interviews and performing because I have to. But I'm pretty laid back.

Tell Aretha I’ll be praying for herBecause she needs Jesus!I love her.

All I can tell you really is if you get to the point where someone is telling you that you are not great or not good enough, just follow your heart and don't let anybody crush your dream.

So if anybody wants to get me something, get me 60 crabs - one for each year. I don't want no diamonds, I don't want no shoes, I don't want no party. I want some crabs.

God doesn't do the work for you; he does the work through you. It's not enough to look up; you must also look within.

That's another lesson I've learned the hard way. All relationships will die if they aren't nurtured. Just as a flower will die if it's not watered. Because love is demonstration, not declaration.

I don't feel as though I have to prove anything to anybody.

So if diva means giving your best, then yes, I guess I am a diva.

I just sing the stuff that makes me smile, makes me feel like I didn't sell myself out.

No blue-blooded family, however degenerate, could have produced the idiots one finds in any parliament.

The gift of loneliness is sometimes a radical vision of society or one's people that has not previously been taken into account.

Until you came along I never dated anyone this low on the food chain.

To be good, you need to believe in what you're doing.

I have always had an attorney on retainer, and now I believe I will have to put him to work.

There are actresses who build themselves, and then there are actresses who are built by others. I want to build myself.

I was raised Jewish. I didn't know anything about Christianity.

I don't have kids, but I do understand family, and I understand how precious family is.

I'm not a misogynist, so you can dispense with that. I think I've done wonders for the feminist movement.

There's no easy way to do this. So do it right: weep, laugh, watch, pray, love, live, give thanks and praise; comfort, mend, honor, and remember.