There's not much longevity in music today. It's so easy to go in, put some pretentious lyrics on, with people saying the same thing over and over and over.

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 walls are the publishers of the poor.

If whatever belief you are holding on to isn't driving you forward in life, then it's time to let it go and let the opposite take charge.

Art doesn't alter things. It points things out, but it doesn't alter them. It can't, no matter what a painter wants to do.

I really believe that women who are confident in their natural beauty are the most beautiful

Happy people have two things in common. They know exactly what they want and they feel they're moving toward getting it.

Crow walked toward her, arms outstretched like a man in a dream, which he was, in a way. Sometimes a dream is enough.

The great spirals, with their enormous radial velocities and insensible proper motions, apparently lie outside our Solar system.

Happiness never becomes a habit.

If anyone was the Fifth Beatle, it was Brian [Epstein].

Looking back, it seemed like it should have been harder to lose someone, or have them lose you, especially when they were in the same state, only a few towns over.