Music is poetry in motion.

And so, lifting as we climb, onward and upward we go, struggling and striving, and hoping that the buds and blossoms of our desires will burst into glorious fruition ere long.

While most girls run away from home to marry, I ran away to teach.

Seeing their children touched and seared and wounded by race prejudice is one of the heaviest crosses which colored women have to bear.

Stop using the word 'Negro.' The word is a misnomer from every point of view. It does not represent a country or anything else ... I am an African-American.

It is only through the home that a people can become really good and truly great.

If you align expectations with reality, you will never be disappointed.

You will have to look at the tape. Actually, you could burn the tape. It's not even worth looking at... We just have to move on to next week. If we just get the next one we will be fine.

Instead of me having a breakdown, I'm focusing on me having a breakthrough.

I think people change, but the media, they never allowed me to change. They never allowed me to be a better person

As a colored woman I might enter Washington any night, stranger in a strange land, and walk miles without finding a place to lay my head

God only gives men power to make wealth, meaning God does not give wealth, he gives the power to work for it. (Deut. 8:18)

Confidence is the quiet assurance you are enough.

Where do we record the passing of wildlife? Who mourns the silent deaths of the small?

If by my life or death I can protect you, I will.

My best career decision was probably not giving up when I wanted to. God as well as my family and friends were there for me during my toughest times.

Now that I'm being very successful, publishers are trying to mainstream me, but I'm unabashedly genre. It's what I like to read, what I like to write

Fear for a linchpin is a clue that you're getting close to doing something important.

I'm into music for all different sorts of purposes.

The world is full of incredible people who are embodiments of compassion. Some of them have a spiritual path; some of them don't.

You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.