When I sing, I have to live in that moment, so my audience can feel that. That is my reason for doing art.

Ain't nothing coming easily in this life. Sometimes you gotta work, you gotta grow and it gotta hurt.

Beauty is an understanding of what you have, and it's forgiving yourself of what you don't have, and appreciating all of it.

Just because you have a nightmare doesn't mean you stop dreaming.

Find new treasures in yourself. Love doesn't die. Love is unyielding. It's going to come back. The more you love and appreciate yourself, the more prepared you are when the real thing shows up.

If you can't help me grow, there's no point with you being in my life.

Saturday Night Live is a show that I think I could have a lot of fun on, just being different characters and maybe singing, too.

I think every individual has his or her own power, and it's a matter of working, taking time and defining what that power is.

I just think it's silly to be stingy with compliments. If you see someone and they strike you as beautiful in any way, why not let them know?

To be a queen of a household is a powerful thing.

Just bc u loved and lost doesn't mean stop loving. If u have a nightmare, does it mean u stop dreaming?

If I could start over today, I would choose literature again. If the answers exist in the world or in the universe, I still think that's where we're going to find them.

I dream of a true husband—a good man, not a brute, nor a champion of men on the battlefield; I dream but of a gentle man, one who neither speaks too loud nor ignores evil.

I've never stayed awake at night over a chance I took that failed, but I've stayed awake over chances I didn't take.

Dealing with race is about educating white folks.

Everybody was inspired by the drawings and the wind tunnels and the race cars - but no one wanted to work with me because I had a reputation for being an aerodynamic dictator!

Divine nature gave us fields, human skill built our cities. -Divina natura dedit agros, ars humana aedificavit urbes

As a general rule, I don't plan to travel with my Oscars, but we may have to make an exception.

The melting-pot idea is futile ... The brew in a melting pot is always boiling over.

Wrong turns are as important as right turns. More important, sometimes.

It makes no difference who or what you are, old or young, black or white, pagan, Jew, or Christian, I want to love you all and be loved by you all, and I mean to have your love.