[I've worked as a guard at Rikers Island] from 1988 to 1990.

Singing is my life. And when I can do that, that's when I'm free. That's when I'm at my happiest, I'm at my most.

I'm not going to sing something if it doesn't make sense to me, or if it makes me look like I'm begging someone or I'm weak, because that's not me.

I'm singing, you know, because I'm happy and I'm free.

Some people can sit down and write a song, but they can't go on stage like I can.

Play with me and you play with fire.

I'm going to keep on keeping on as long as I've got my health and strength, and God gives me that will to do it.

God's eye is on a sparrow. And I know - oh, yes, I know he watches over me...

Music is my happiness, my joy, and when my body wasn't right I couldn't get into my music without being healed, without being healthy.

When I'm on tour, I don't see these spots as much as I'd like. I'm just in, I perform, then I'm out. I hope to spend years sightseeing, then more years after that.

I miss my hair, but I feel like going out there with some fake braids wouldn't be right. I want to be the most genuine performer I can be.

Time could heal, but it wouldn't make wrongs go away. Time came back like a reminder. Time folded with memory. In a moment, everything could fold itself up, and time stand still.

Creativity means learning where the rules exist, and then breaking them! Saying, "It's better this way." But you have to know the rules in order to break them with any grace.

I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living.

You should never argue with a crazy mind, you ought to know my now.

Human beings are on a journey of awareness, which has momentarily been interrupted by extraneous forces.

The problem with always being a conformist is that when you try to change the system from within, it's not you who changes the system; it's the system that will eventually change you.

The old man began to sing. His voice was very lovely and obviously a part of something that the world had disposed of in its haste, evidence of a grander, kinder past.

One may have been a fool, but there's no foolishness like being bitter.

I normally shun the spotlight, but I don't mind being the platform.