My nose was part of my heritage, and if I had talent to sing and to act, why wasn't that enough?

My friend Quincy Jones says we won our first Grammys together in 1963. I have no recollection. I don't even remember the room. When he showed me the picture, I remembered what I wore. But it's like awards don't mean anything.

. . . it is true, even people with painful childhoods. . . grow up to be more interesting people. So, there's always a positive to a negative.

I want the best product for my audience, and if I don't care 100%, who will? It's my name, my likeness that goes out there.

A man who graduated high in his class at Yale Law School and made partnership in a top law firm would be celebrated. But a woman who accomplishes this is treated with suspicion.

When I was maybe 5 or 6 years old, the neighborhood girls would sit on the stoop and sing. I was known as the kid who had a good voice and no father.

I was raised on the streets, in hot, steamy Brooklyn, with stifled air.