Women are strong now. Women are dominating the charts, and women are doing it for themselves. We're kicking butt and taking no prisoners.

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.

From experience, I can tell you that if you go around trying to figure out what's fair in life or whether you deserve something or not, that's a rabbit hole that is hard to climb out of.

Sucks to be left out of adolescence, sort of like getting locked in the closet on Venus when the sun appears for the first time in a hundred years.

When you build a wall to protect yourself against one person be warned--everyone is now out there except for you.

Censor: A self-appointed snoophound who sticks his nose in other people's business.

Worriers spend a lot of time shoveling smoke.

I grew up always admiring business owners. I was always interested in knowing who pulled what strings. I've always been in love with the decision making process, not just the product.

Shaping it is something I would expect to do together with a writer, because that's a director's job.

I think the whole, like, cultural diversity and the arty side of London is really, really great. And how it's so historic as well.

...I returned to walking up the mountain, and there, in the dim asexual beauty of reddening dawns and skies that firmed to blue, I discovered my real and appropriate strengths.

Forgive everyone everything.