“I’m good where I am at this moment.”

I’m a person who has life and wants to live, and always have.

My mother taught me that when you stand in the truth and someone tells a lie about you, don’t fight it.

I wish to you, joy and happiness. But above all this, I wish you love

Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be.

I was aware of people staring at me. No one moved. They seemed almost in trance. I just stared at the clock in the center of the church. When I finished, everyone clapped and started crying.

God gave me a voice to sing with, and when you have that, what other gimmick is there?

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.

I don’t really get nervous that much, or if I do, only I know. It’s all inside me. I am good at hiding everything.

We last longer if we compete against ourselves for the good of others instead of competing against others for the good of ourselves.

If it’s good music, it’s good music.

It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.

Set your heart on doing good. Do it over and over again, and you will be filled with joy.

It is a good thing to be rich and strong, but it is a better thing to be loved.

Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.

It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.