Trying to grow up is hurting. You make mistakes. You try to learn from them, and when you don't, it hurts even more.

We all require and want respect, man or woman, black or white. It's our basic human right.

Be your own artist, and always be confident in what youre doing. If youre not going to be confident, you might as well not be doing it.

Soul is a constant. It's cultural. It's always going to be there, in different flavors and degrees.

I'm a big woman. I need big hair.

If you disrespect everybody that you run into, how in the world do you think everybody's supposed to respect you?

People really don't have to give you anything, so appreciate what people give you. And just don't let that go to your head, whatever it is they give you.

Don't say Aretha is making a comeback, because I've never been away!

Falling out of love is like losing weight. It's a lot easier putting it on than taking it off.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me.

My faith always has been and always will be important to me.

My heart leaps up when I beholdA rainbow in the sky:So was it when my life began

Billy squinted at me. "Why are you letting them go?""Because they're real.""How do you know?""The one I was holding crapped on my hand.

A sudden and unforseen swinging of his head alarmed all present. He seemed to be trying to scare off a flock of vampires biting into his brain.

Poverty is the absence of all human rights. The frustrations, hostility and anger generated by abject poverty cannot sustain peace in any society.

I was one of five out of 100 people who passed the test, which just proved to me how little Americans are taught geography.

I never really thought of myself as a beefcake kind of guy.

I've played so many jobs where I'm fearless, but it's far from me. I wish I were like that in real life.

A nation that knows how to work will never suffer.

I can stay on my boat for a few weeks if I have a guitar and a girl and a Bob Marley CD. After that, I've got to move around.

I collect men with interesting names.