I try to choose the songs that really are basically coming from my heart. I think that through the songs that I select, people know what's going on in my life.

The only recording studio was in Motown - it was called Tamla/Motown at that time and we used to audition there because Smokey Robinson was at that studio and Berry Gordy was the president. I remember asking Smokey to listen to my group and he did. For the first couple of years we were just singing background. We used to back up Marvin Gaye; Mary Wells was there then, Marv Johnson, the Marvelettes, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Junior Walker and the All-Stars.

I've never been damaged or hurt by press. It's just that I think it's unfair to use your name in media.

I even thought of adopting a child as a single mother.

I want to live in Paris for a couple of years. I'm dying to do the Josephine Baker story. I really want to be there and do it. It's certainly my intention to do it.

For some reason, my main movie, Lady Sings the Blues, to me really isn't me. I really can let go of Diana Ross when I see the movie. I'm really objective when I'm watching it. I liked that movie so much. That movie was like magic so that when I'm looking at it I'm really not seeing myself, I'm seeing the actress. I'm seeing another person, not the me of me.

I'm crazy about Diane Von Furstenberg. It's a relationship that's very different; I don't see Diane a lot. So when I saw the article in New York magazine she looked so beautiful and it was talking about her work, too. She set up the interview and it was happening. That's different than someone writing a book about you who you've never met.