“Yes, I’ve always been fashion conscious.”

My faith always has been and always will be important to me.

Now, occasionally I will still have that quarter pounder because I love fast food, but you have to keep it to a minimum.

Women have broken through the glass ceiling, and they’re now more and more in the power seats.

Politics are not my arena. Music is.

Music does a lot of things for a lot of people. It’s transporting, for sure. It can take you right back, years back, to the very moment certain things happened in your life. It’s uplifting, it’s encouraging, it’s strengthening.

People really don’t have to give you anything, so appreciate what people give you. And just don’t let that go to your head, whatever it is they give you.

I’m the lady next door when I’m not on stage.

I love to sing. It’s just a natural thing for me.

Let’s start with the church. As you know, it’s my background, it’s a natural setting for me and it’s definitely my roots.

I don’t feel one’s personal medical condition is everybody’s business. It just isn’t something you advertise, and it’s not open to discussion.

I sing to the realists, people who accept it like it is. I express problems. There are tears when it’s sad and smiles when it’s happy. It seems simple to me, but for some people, I guess feelin’ takes courage.

Soul is a constant. It’s cultural. It’s always going to be there, in different flavors and degrees.

Being the Queen is not all about singing and being a diva is not all about singing. It has much to do with your service to people. And your social contributions to your community and your civic contributions as well.

I’ve always felt that rock & roll was very, very wholesome.

My heart is still there in gospel music. It never left . . . I’m gonna make a gospel record and tell Jesus I cannot bear these burdens alone.

As a parent you try to maintain a certain amount of control and so you have this tug-of-war … You have to learn when to let go. And that’s not easy.

The ability to consciously decide and alter which direction is best for you in every moment is an amazing privilege. 

Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.

Men are mistaken in thinking themselves free; their opinion is made up of consciousness of their own actions, and ignorance of the causes by which they are determined.

Meditation is a vital practice to access conscious contact with your highest self.

The unconscious mind is that strange sub-world revealed through dreams, lapses, or Freudian slips. “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.

The mind of God is all the mentality that is scattered over space and time, the diffused consciousness that animates the world.

At the touch of this divine light, the mountains seemed to kindle to a rapt, religious consciousness, and stood hushed like devout worshippers waiting to be blessed.

Energy is what I believe all of us are. We’re just conscious awareness dancing for itself for no other reason but to stay amused.