Once I stopped dwelling on what I didn't have, on what I thought I was going to lose, and began to give freely, everything opened up for me. Everything began to flow into my life.

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.

Eventually, there's certain limit in telling bare fact through words.It ain't about diction constraints, but common ability to understand.

Any impossibility turned into a possibility is magic.

Don't worry about being a normal person, let the normal person worry about not being you.

Obervation is a passive science, experimentation is an active science.

It is the photographs that gives one the vivid realization of what actually took place. (On photographs from Abu Ghraib prison.)

You can let hate, animosity and anger eat away at you, or you can let it go and begin again.

Change Won’t Happen Immediately, as Nigeria’s Problems Didn’t Start Overnight

Never take anyone for granted. Never take anyone's kindness for their weakness. What's once yours could easily turn into a memory.

We [ with Ewan McGregor] decided exactly what we would do at every moment, what the texture would be.

I have spent my career trying to get Congressmen to spend the people's money as if it were their own. But I have failed.