We are never doing anyone any favors by withholding our gifts from the world. It's scary to be fierce, but you can't compromise that for fear of losing those around you.

You can't get it all right all the time, but you can try your best. If you've done that, all that's left is to accept your shortcomings and have the courage to try to overcome them.

Being a role model is about being true to myself.

When you sit back and you just do what you love, things happen

It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small, and the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all.

I find that, maybe because I'm also a singer, I hear music in characters all the time, even if they don't sing. I hear what affects me in my heart.

Nerves are good. They keep you alive.

Things happen for a reason, and in their own time.

I know I'm known for singing some of those high notes but that's really not what giving someone goose bumps is all about. It's about really trying to find what makes you unique...

The one who tried too hard, the outsider, the oddball. Yeah, that was me.

I definitely use my music to kind of alleviate my stress and get me through specific moments in time where I'm just being really tough on myself.

We all have the ability to make someone's life better with our love.

For 300 years, higher education was not disruptable because there was no technological core.

And that's how the Peacock saved the Chameleon

I'm a pretty goofy person. I'm an awkward dancer, for instance, and a terrible singer.

The fire is the main comfort of the camp, whether in summer or winter

Be assured that I did not become the Mayor of Chicago to preside over its decline.

Love is all, love is new, love is all, love is you.

On with the dance, let the joy be unconfined.

As far as intellectual training was concerned, my nine years from seven to sixteen were practically wasted.

I was trained on stage at NYU in New York City; I did a lot of theatre then.