Once I retire and slow down, I don't want to be in New York. I want to be somewhere near a lake or a pond, so that on my days when I have nothing to do, I can go fishing.

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.

Whatever one does, someone is always happy...then again, someone else is not pleased

You teach people how to treat you by what you accept.

I think I would rather have a cat than a sweetheart, after all. They are less trouble, and even the handsomest sweetheart is sadly lacking in fur.

Simply do something else and return to it later to find the problem wasn't a problem at all. Ruptures almost always lead to a stronger project.

When I started out I was a failed actor.

The artist, busy and unsettled, can find a moment's peace - and even whole-being rejuvenation - by quietly attuning to a red sky, a gray sky, a black sky, a blue sky.

Friends are the family we choose.

If we do not get No Child Left Behind right for Limited English Proficient students, the law will be a failure for most schools in the 15th Congressional District, and for many across the nation.

Come fill up my cup, come fill up my can, Come saddle your horses, and call up your men; Come open the West Port, and let me gang free, And it's room for the bonnets of Bonny Dundee!