“My mother was the first singer I had contact with. She sang constantly to us around the house, in church.”

I have a mother that’s very strong and family that surround me and constantly tell me they love me.

When I heard Aretha, I could feel her emotional delivery so clearly. It came from down deep within. That’s what I wanted to do.

I would stay in my room for days, for days at times, just trying to get it together, to know what my next phase was going to be.

From the beginning, the camera and I were great friends. It loves me, and I love it.

Nobody likes to be picked on. Nobody.

I’m not crazy about arenas just because I can sell them out. It doesn’t do anything for my ego at all. I want to play places where people don’t have to sit in the nosebleed seats and wonder what the hell is going on.

I’m proud of being a mother, a wife, a daughter, and a sister, and a lover and a friend We’re all God’s children.

I’d rather be alone than unhappy

I believe the children are our future

I feel so blessed to just have done what I had done. To be able to just use what God has given me is a blessing. You know, never mind the Grammys, never mind the records, never mind all of that. Just to be able to sing.

If I should die this very day, Don’t cry…cause on Earth We wasn’t meant to stay.

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.

The mind of the scholar, if he would leave it large and liberal, should come in contact with other minds.

I’ve spent so many years waiting for publishers to consider whether they wanted to print a book of mine, making contracts, taking months to fit it into the Fall list or the Spring list, fitting it into an advertising plan.

Ever since intelligent beings began to be in contact, and consequently in friction, they have felt the need to guard themselves against each other’s encroachments.

The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract.

A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts.

Computer literacy is a contact with the activity of computing deep enough to make the computational equivalent of reading and writing fluent and enjoyable.

It’s always better to speak the language of the team. Not only for the direct contact with everyone.

Love is not a contract between two narcissists.