I think the race situation is getting better as far as people respecting each other goes. I think the race situation with entertainment is not that much better.

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.

The only reason why our minds are controlled is due to the fact that we don't make the conscious effort to control what goes in them.

As I look back now, I really feel like God has called me not just to speak into the lives of believers but, even broader than that, to speak into the lives of people that are outside of the Church.

Writers do not find subjects; subjects find them.

I couldn't have thought of her more. Even vacancy was crowded with her.

Do 40 hard minutes, not an hour and a half of nonsense.

Plunge boldly into the thick of life!

Prevarication, how divine! I always did get along better with sinners.

I just can't go to the mall. It bothers me that I can't be outside very often.

when it comes to their essential faculty as writers, all writers are androgynous beings.

A crime is a crime irrespective of the birth marks of the criminal.