There has never been a time when I was not committed to, involved in, or caring of, the social and political issues of my world.

I was given a stethoscope in a child's 'doctor's bag' at about age six and I loved it! One could hear the heart beating through that plastic toy.

Pigeon-holes are only comfortable for pigeons.

Problems arise in that one has to find a balance between what people need from you and what you need for yourself.

I am grateful that my horizons were not narrowed at the outset.

My arias make me take off as if I were on a trampoline.

It is still more likely that a woman's power would be seen as aggression, and a man's power would be seen as assertion.

There's no anger ever in a spiritual. There's always the dream of a hope of a better day coming. That God understands the troubles that I'm experiencing.

One needs more than ambition and talent to make a success of anything, really. There must be love and a vocation.

I want to sing more in Spanish. I want to sing the songs of Granados; the songs of Montsalvatge. To do things that truly I've not done before.

I walk an 11-minute mile without huffing and puffing.

Secrecy begets tyranny.

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me.

Nobody deserves to be praised for goodness unless he is strong enough to be bad.

We walked beside each other, talking about things we should have been least concerned about. But at that moment, it was those things that kept me alive.

What he [Barack Obama] does to change the world - that's what's important.

People are worried about the degree to which corporate interest is starting to threaten human interest.

hate has no literature: real fear and real hate have no words

After years of living with the coldest realities I still believe that one reaps what one sows and that to sow kindness is the best of all investments.

We're making it more difficult to obtain the necessary ingredients to produce meth and tightening criminal penalties for those who deal in this dangerous drug.

Men have the power of thinking that they may avoid sin.