You don't have to be an angel, just be someone who can give.

I'm 60, and I did 60-year-old women songs. I'm not trying to be the Hip-Hop Queen, although I am the original Hip Hop Queen.

When you take your troubles to God, you may have them but they don't have you.

Once I stopped dwelling on what I didn't have, on what I thought I was going to lose, and began to give freely, everything opened up for me. Everything began to flow into my life.

I keep showing decade after decade that I am a real performer.

That's another lesson I've learned the hard way. All relationships will die if they aren't nurtured. Just as a flower will die if it's not watered. Because love is demonstration, not declaration.

Women are strong now. Women are dominating the charts, and women are doing it for themselves. We're kicking butt and taking no prisoners.