You've got to know business before you go to show business.

I can't do some of the songs that younger girls like Mary J. Blige and Beyonce are doing. They have their own place and I have my own place.

I know how to put it on when it comes to interviews and performing because I have to. But I'm pretty laid back.

Tell Aretha I’ll be praying for herBecause she needs Jesus!I love her.

All I can tell you really is if you get to the point where someone is telling you that you are not great or not good enough, just follow your heart and don't let anybody crush your dream.

So if anybody wants to get me something, get me 60 crabs - one for each year. I don't want no diamonds, I don't want no shoes, I don't want no party. I want some crabs.

God doesn't do the work for you; he does the work through you. It's not enough to look up; you must also look within.

That's another lesson I've learned the hard way. All relationships will die if they aren't nurtured. Just as a flower will die if it's not watered. Because love is demonstration, not declaration.

I don't feel as though I have to prove anything to anybody.

So if diva means giving your best, then yes, I guess I am a diva.

I just sing the stuff that makes me smile, makes me feel like I didn't sell myself out.

Her maternal instinct told her Natasha had too much of something, and because of this she would not be happy

But Death was cunning.

There was a time in my life when being dishonest with women was the natural way to be. I finally said, "Hey, I have to stop this silliness."

The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.

You don't know what's coming for you in life, and you don't know what's around the corner. When you're in a great deal of pain, you're only imagining your world the way it is.

We're traditional and don't do cutting-edge styles, but after 17 years we're holding our own.

A true university can never rest upon the will of one man. A true university always rests upon the wills of many divergent-minded old men, who refuse to be disturbed, but who growl in their kennels.

Darwinism removed the whole idea of God as the creator from the sphere of rational discussion.

The technological way of thinking has infected even ethics, which is supposed to be thinking about the good.

As a young child, I played the violin. I think that that started the spark