I prefer to leave standing up, like a well-mannered guest at a party.

The ultimate of being successful is the luxury of giving yourself the time to do what you want to do.

Art is the only thing you cannot punch a button for. You must do it the old-fashioned way. Stay up and really burn the midnight oil. There are no compromises.

I am here and you will know that I am the best and will hear me. The color of my skin or the kink of my hair or the spread of my mouth has nothing to do with what you are listening to.

Accomplishments have no color.

Who I am is the best I can be.

I have never given all of myself, even vocally, to anyone. I was taught to sing on your interest, not your capital.

Be black, shine, aim high.

If you're not feeling good about you, what you're wearing outside doesn't mean a thing.

You should always know when you're shifting gears in life. You should leave your era - it should never leave you.

For a long time the only time I felt beautiful-in the sense of being complete as a woman, as a human being, and even female-was when I was singing.

Nothing is perpetual in this world. Not even your everlasting soul!

Gratitude is the gateway to a positive life.

I never could have written the screenplay because I would have been forced to learn new software and I can't learn one more thing.

Freedom is not overcoming what you think stands in your way. It is understanding that what is in your way is part of the way.

I want to work beyond external aggressions, forget that one has something to do for others if it's not for oneself.

He tried to remember how this happened – how she went from someone he’d never met to the only one who mattered.

Just as a little bird cracks open the shell and flies out, we fly out of this shell, the shell of the body. We call that death, but strictly speaking, death is nothing but a change of form.

I'm very sad to be compared with Warhol and The Factory, because I have no drugs, you know. We have no drug culture in Japan! Maybe it's because our attitude toward labor is totally different.

There's nothing like real forgiveness, a deep-down forgiveness where you don't hold any grudges against people. I forgave for the things they didn't know and for the things they didn't know to do.

Heaven know its time; the bullet has its billet