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.

I love things that are indescribable, like the taste of an avocado or the smell of a gardenia.

I think of myself as a girl from Brooklyn.

I've considered having my nose fixed. But I didn't trust anyone enough. If I could do it myself with a mirror.

Why is it men are permitted to be obsessed about their work, but women are only permitted to be obsessed about men?

You know, for me, the realization that two people should have the right to form a sacred union regardless of their gender was strengthened when I saw a performance of the play The Normal Heart in 1985. After feeling the love those two men had for each other, I dare anybody not to want them to get married by the end.

I don't think I'm tough in a so called tough way. I'm tough on myself.