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

I listen to most everything that's out there because I need to stay aware of what's happening in the industry.

I look forward to the future - and going into the studio to make new music.

I keep a great organiser, I try to keep my priorities in the right place.

I know that my fans want to know who I'm sleeping with, but it's really none of their business.

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

I'm from a singing family, but they're not professional singers, only gospel - my grandfather was a minister. I started to sing the music that was out then because my mother used to play it all the time. It was the end of the '50s, the beginning of the '60s. There was Frankie Lyman and the Teenagers, Etta James... We used to sit outside on the stoop and sing. We even used to put our radios and record players outside.