It's a spirit that was given me and the relationships and meeting all these great people, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong; through Max I met a lot of people too. My first album was with Benny Carter.

The best thing you can do is to be a woman and stand before the world and speak your heart.

Sing a song correctly and you live forever.

I am the first instrument. I am the voice. I do not imitate other instruments. Other instruments imitate me.

I don't have to lay on the couch and see a therapist because my therapist is in my paint brushes.

I was looking for the people who were making the music inside the cabinet. I would look in there and see if I could find somebody who was making all this wonderful music.

You can never loose a thing If it belongs to you.

I think that's what really a substantial work is, it's forever. It's the truth now and it was the truth then, and it will be the truth tomorrow.

We have inherited a great music. This music is a holdover. It comes with us like the skin, the texture of our hair. It's our memory banks.

Politics doesn’t mean playing deceitful and trickery games against the people, it means playing resourceful and organized games for the people.

Always work enthusiastically.

To be a writer, open your heart. Keep it open. You can't be a writer with a closed heart.

If Iran does not take steps in the near future to live up to its obligations, then the United States will not continue to negotiate indefinitely... Our patience is not unlimited.

I learned what a lot of women have to do is make the guys in the room think it was their idea, and then you back them up.

somewhere about the eighteenth century, history tacitly replaced religion as the school of public morals.

Is this place called Virgins? Well, I shouldn't be here! -Nina

When we change our thoughts, we can truly change the world.

An erring colleague is not an Amalkite to be smitten hip and thigh.

I have a terrifying long list of fears. Literally everything - diseases, spiders... and people getting tired of me.