This may be a dream, but I'll say it anyway: I was supposed to be married last year, and I bought a gown. When I meet Nelson Mandela, I shall put on this gown and have the train of it removed and put aside, and kiss the ground that he walks on and then kiss his feet.

I'm a real rebel with a cause.

There's no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were.

Funk, gospel, blues is all out of slavery times, out of depression, out of sorrow.

When a child is gifted, people try to help that child.

I was not reluctant to become a singer. Singing has been an activity I've done my whole life, without thought.

Slavery has never been abolished from America's way of thinking.