She's my teacher, my adviser, my greatest inspiration.

Nobody likes to be picked on. Nobody.

In grammar school some of the girls had problems with me. My face was too light. My hair was too long. It was the black-consciousness period, and I felt really bad.

What's in your soul is in your soul.

My mother taught me beauty really lives in places like a smile.

I'd rather be alone than unhappy

My mother was the first singer I had contact with. She sang constantly to us around the house, in church.