“You get that love from the people. It lets me know that all the madness I go through, all the stuff that the business has to offer with all its madness; it makes it worthwhile.”

I finally faced the fact that it isn’t a crime not having friends. Being alone means you have fewer problems.

I think over the years, being a mother, I’ve matured in so many ways.

I’ve turned down a lot of arena dates because I’ve done the big-arena thing. Now, I want to do something where people can feel me and I can feel them.

I’m either my best friend or my worst enemy.

Never let your heart take precedence over reason, otherwise you will have problems.

Being around people like Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick and Roberta Flack, all these greats, I was taught to listen and observe.

If you say my eyes are beautiful, it’s because they are looking at you.

No one makes me do anything I don’t want to do.

What’s in your soul is in your soul.

She’s my teacher, my adviser, my greatest inspiration.

In grammar school some of the girls had problems with me. My face was too light. My hair was too long. It was the black-consciousness period, and I felt really bad.

I believe that children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside.

My mother taught me beauty really lives in places like a smile.

Growing around great musicians, you just can’t help it. I identified with it immediately. It was something that was so natural to me that when I started singing, it was almost like speaking.

I like being a woman, even in a man’s world. After all, men can’t wear dresses, but we can wear the pants.

I’m an old-fashioned girl. And I love gospel. I like things that lift me up, inspire me.

Divine love is not something belonging to God: it is God Himself.

We’ll endure daily scars in our lives through shared adversity.

Love always elevates the character of man. It never lowers him, provided love be love.

I love you but your eyes didn’t see my worth

How you treat yourself becomes the identity others see in you.

Try to believe that still within you are flowers left to bloom.

Love is real, wait for it.

And whenever my mind wanders, it is always to you.