I thought of singing and acting as a living-making. I was able to take care of myself and a few of my friends.

I've seen so much. And I've heard so many great performers. There are performers now that couldn't work back in the days when I came along.

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

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

I thought of singing and acting as a living-making. I was able to take care of myself and a few of my friends.

I don't have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I'd become. I'm me, and I'm like nobody else.