I like to shop, but I don't like to go out to dances.

What happens is, when I perform, I'm somewhere else. I go back in time and get in touch with who I really am. I forget my troubles, my worries.

I'm not a braggart, but when I was a little girl people used to come from all over Hollywood to hear me sing.

I really turned into, you know, the real street kid. I was kind of like a runaway, but I had a mother, you know what I mean, and I had a place to stay.

I'm not a bourgeois person, never will be.

All the things I used to like - cookies, ice cream, gumbo - I don't like anymore.

It's not about battling the original artists when I record these songs, it's about paying tribute to them.