I’m well acquainted with villains that live in my head.

Crack me open and get drunk on the contents of my spirit. Warning: consuming too much may have permanent effects.

The music field was the first to break down racial barriers, because in order to play together, you have to love the people you are playing with, and if you have any racial inhibitions, you wouldn’t be able to do that.

Basically you have to suppress your own ambitions in order to be who you need to be.

Inspiration may be a form of super-consciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness—I wouldn’t know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness.

You need to face the pain and the fear and walk through the Grief.

I grew up in Tennessee. We didn’t know what Louis Vuitton was. I had to order all my prom outfits out of catalogs.

I am a woman with thoughts and questions and sh*t to say. I say if I’m beautiful. I say if I’m strong. You will not determine my story – I will.

Being a singer is a natural gift. It means I’m using to the highest degree possible the gift that God gave me to use. I’m happy with that.

What sometimes is missing for young girls is that so early in our lives we’re shushed. And not just directly shushed. Sometimes we’re treated a little too preciously. They treat us like a doll. They don’t treat us like real beings, equal partners. I was loved early by my father, but I was never so precious that he didn’t think I could be there at the table.

I would prefer to abandon the terminology of the past. ‘Superpower’ is something which we used during the cold war time. Why use it now?

You’re just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It’s all down to you, mate.

It is a sweet and seemly thing to die for one’s country.

The superiority of some men is merely local. They are great because their associates are little.

Blame keeps wounds open. Only forgiveness heals.

Loving can cost a lot but not loving always costs more, and those who fear to love often find that want of love is an emptiness that robs the joy from life.

You may try but you can never imagine what it is to have a man’s form of genius in you, and to suffer the slavery of being a girl.

finally know what distinguishes man from other beasts: financial worries.

If you said you had homosexual tendencies they sent you to a psychiatrist.

Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men’s imperfections, and conceal your own.

Keep true, never be ashamed of doing right; decide on what you think is right and stick to it.