Nobody black or white who really believes in democracy can stand aside now; everybody's got to stand up and be counted.

I want to sing like Aretha Franklin. Before her I wanted the technical ability of Ella Fitzgerald.

I'm me, and I'm like nobody else.

The naked female body is treated so weirdly in society. It's like people are constantly begging to see it, but once they do, someone's a hoe.

It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it. Carry it by the comfortable handles of gratitude for what's positive and that it is not worse, rather than the uncomfortable edges of bitterness for the negatives and that it is not better.

I was lucky, as many of my generation was, in having a man like Dr. King in our lives. He came at a time that we needed to take a long look at each other and see how similar we were.

I really do hate to sing.