American Quotes

You can't buy back your respect; you can't buy back your career. You only get one, so I don't want to mess that up.

I turned down a scholarship to Yale. The problem with college is that there's a tendency to mistake preparation for productivity. You can prepare all you want, but if you never roll the dice you'll never be successful.

To be an actor, a true actor, you have to be brokenhearted.

My dad is a motorcycle guy, not some Hollywood dude.

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.

I'll perform all the way to the grave.

I was a shy kid with a broom handle that I pretended was a microphone.

I truly respect the people who are working. If they want an autograph from Patti LaBelle, they are going to get it. I have never separated myself from them. I never think you are better than the next one.

I think the race situation is getting better as far as people respecting each other goes. I think the race situation with entertainment is not that much better.

I never wanted to go on stage alone because if you mess up, who can you blame?

I never thought I would be singing for the world.

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

I just sing the stuff that makes me smile, makes me feel like I didn't sell myself out.

I decided to always sing in the back with the chorus and never went up front because I had trouble performing.

I can't do some of the songs that younger girls like Mary J. Blige and Beyonce are doing. They have their own place and I have my own place.

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

I was very shy. I'm still shy.

I love Canadians because I don't see very much racism in Canada.

I like hip-hop music, but some of the lyrics make me want to cry.

I know how to put it on when it comes to interviews and performing because I have to. But I'm pretty laid back.

I have to go 150 percent or nothing at all.

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

So if anybody wants to get me something, get me 60 crabs - one for each year. I don't want no diamonds, I don't want no shoes, I don't want no party. I want some crabs.

People with no humor, they're outta my life.

I want to be remembered as a woman who was fair and always gave 150 percent, no matter what I did.

A diva is someone who is a perfectionist, who does her best in her craft.

I don't feel as though I have to prove anything to anybody.

So if diva means giving your best, then yes, I guess I am a diva.

All I can tell you really is if you get to the point where someone is telling you that you are not great or not good enough, just follow your heart and don't let anybody crush your dream.

Conversion for me was not a Damascus Road experience. I slowly moved into an intellectual acceptance of what my intuition had always known.