My songs are very personal, which means they are fantastically therapeutic to write, but performing them night after night is emotionally draining.

I like pastels and lighter shades on darker skins. I feel like it lifts everything and accentuates being chocolate.

I respect hippos. They just look the way they do; they can't do anything about it, but they don't seem bothered.

I love church buildings, particularly cathedrals, and I like living in spaces that remind me of music or evoke that creative energy.

Who made you the center of the universe?

Taxi drivers used to ask me what kind of music I did, and I'd say, 'Well, it's kind of jazz, soul, classical' - but that makes no sense to anyone.

My parents encouraged us to commit to things, so if we wanted to learn an instrument, it was all the grades and all the theory.

I write songs from the heart, and I don't hold back.

I always said when I was younger, I wanted to write film music, and I think that's what my ultimate dream is.

I really love jazz, but I will never be a jazz musician as much as I dream. But, I think that the jazz music I love is there in my music.

You don't have to aim to be the best of everything, thinking that one day you're going to be the top of the world; I don't think it exists.

Smiles and laughter are contagious

I'm not here to be small, to compare, to judge (myself or you), to fit in or to be perfect. I'm here to grow, to learn, to love, to be human.

Whether you vote for me or you don't vote for me, I really want to be your greatest champion. And I will be your champion, whether you vote for me or not.

Individuals may form communities, but it is institutions alone that can create a nation.

An evangelical minister has had to resign after pictures surfaced showing him in a hot tub with two women. He claimed it was just a baptism gone terribly wrong.

If I live to be 90, and I'm planning to, I'll always love performing for a live audience.

If you want riches, you must refuse to accept any circumstance that leads toward poverty.

Voodoo is a very interesting religion for the whole family, even those members of it who are dead.

I do not like [in the new Federal Constitution] the omission of a Bill of Rights providing clearly and without the aid of sophisms for... protection against standing armies

Too much of anything, even a good thing, may prove to be our undoing...[We] need ...to set definite boundaries on our appetites.