“Do you know where you going to? Do you like the things that life is showing you? Where are you going to? Do you know?”

I’m not really a songwriter – I’m an interpreter. So in a sense I am an actress first and foremost. I act out the songs, and I lead with my heart.

It has always been, and still is, my intention to build a playground in Central Park.

One thing you cannot control is nature.

My travels led me to where I am today. Sometimes these steps have felt painful, difficult, but led me to greater happiness and opportunities.

When I’m working I actually forget to eat. I don’t eat sweets because I don’t care about them. I have no real secrets. I just realize that as I get older I should stay strong so I exercise more.

My problem is that people have been writing books about me.A lot of things that people write about you are incorrect, but you don’t fight about it.

I was brought up in this part of Detroit that they used to call the ghetto.

People can take your name and write a book about you and they make money off of it. How is the public supposed to know you’re not authorizing that book? As soon as you make a big stink about it it only makes the book sell more.

I have never gotten into the label thing.

Hair has always been important.

Criticism, even when you try to ignore it, can hurt. I have cried over many articles written about me, but I move on and I don’t hold on to that.

You know, you do need mentors, but in the end, you really just need to believe in yourself.

I don’t know what my life would have been like if I’d never gotten into show business.

So I’m not worried about the emotions I carry with me, because I’m happy that I have them; I think it’s good for the work I do. The emotions that are not healthy are the ones you hold inside, like anger.

All my gowns have trains on them. I make a train that goes on forever. I love long trains and then I stand there and twirl around and wrap myself up in it.

I want an autobiography without revealing any personal information.

I have seen great intolerance shown in support of tolerance.

[O]ften art has judged the judges, pleaded revenge to the innocent and shown to the future what the past suffered, so that it has never been forgotten.

Longitudinal studies following thousands of people across time have shown that most people only begin to gravitate toward certain vocational interests, and away from others, around middle school.

The book itself is a curious artifact, not showy in its technology but complex and extremely efficient: a really neat little device, compact, often very pleasant to look at and handle, that can last decades, even centuries.

Race? It is a feeling, not a reality. Ninety-five per cent, at least. Nothing will ever make me believe that biologically pure races can be shown to exist today….

If human beings were shown what they’re really like, they’d either kill one another as vermin, or hang themselves.

There are women who have completely transformed my view of fashion and if I hadn’t shown them I would never have arrived at this point in fashion, you see.

If you imagine the world listening, you’ll never write a line. That’s why privacy is so important. You should write first drafts as if they will never be shown to anyone.