One is just given a talent, and it's one's duty to make the most of it.

I know I'm not exactly a bombshell, but one has to make the best of what one's got.

You can listen to what everybody says, but the fact remains that you've got to get out there and do the thing yourself.

All singers must be crazy. But we're a nice family of crazy people

If I weren't reasonably placid, I don't think I could cope with this sort of life. To be a diva, you've got to be absolutely like a horse.

The world we are born into-this complicated, difficult, hauntingly touching world-is the one whole thing. It is the world we awaken in, and awaken to.

My voice was obviously God given and I have tried to give of myself honestly.

I'm very happy to sing whatever I'm singing. I've always enjoyed any role I've been given at a certain time. They've all been favourites, they've all been wonderful pieces to play.

I don't sing for anybody. I wouldn't sing for the Queen dear.

I wasn't actually trained by my mother, she said she never taught me but she was a great singer herself and I can't remember when I didn't listen to her sing and imitate her.

When the heart craved something so forcefully, then reason became nothing but helpless observer.

I will never understand how a mother can kill her own baby and not get away with it.

One had better not rush, otherwise dung comes out rather than creative work.

Most speakers speak ten minutes too long.

The fate of the architect is the strangest of all. How often he expends his whole soul, his whole heart and passion, to produce buildings into which he himself may never enter.

All couples must bear the strain of getting acquainted, having been, up to then, merely intimate.

Do you ever have the feeling you're a tourist on earth?

There will always be a business cycle, and white-collar workers will get hit in the next recession like they always do in recessions.

From the music I make, to the things I do in my life, I'm true to my R&B core.

Poetry is a subset of a Cosmos, which in itself, is a poem.