Queen Latifah

I guess my parents were strict. There were a few times when being with my friends and had bring my sister. It was just my parents best interests.

People say: “Oh yeah, jobs for the boys”. I wish. You’ve got to fight even harder with a family like mine.

Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero.

Be nice to your siblings, they’re your best link to your past and the most likely to stay with you in the future.

Once I became a mother I knew that I was strong, but not ready to do what I’m doing now

I didn’t want to disrespect my parents, so I never played blues around the house. But I knew then, same as I know today, that I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I think that before they died, they both felt very proud of me.

A few years after my first son was born, he wanted to know how we chose his name, so I began reading him the story of Noah’s Ark.

The family is very important. They make me feel good always because if I won, when I started to be famous, the relationship never changed with my friends and family.

My mother was a very beautiful lady, I thought. She was very good to me. I guess – she died when I was nine and a half, but if she had lived, I probably wouldn’t be trying to play guitar. She wanted me to be known, but as something else. Not a guitar player.

What will your children be teaching your grandchildren?

Father was the eldest son and the heir apparent, and he set the standard for being a Rockefeller very high, so every achievement was taken for granted and perfection was the norm.

Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.

My siblings are my best friends.

I have not been a good father, but no father has loved his children more. Like my father, I decided the best thing I could do for my kids was work and provide. Fortunately, I’ve been able to do that. Unfortunately, my work was on the road, and that’s meant a life of one-nighters.

I learned another thing from the hurt my cousin gave me – never to give that kind of hurt to anyone else. My revenge was to change a bad feeling into a good one. If I’m working with you and I sense you’re feeling a little insecure, I try to make you feel great. That’s how I get rid of my old hurt. If I don’t do that, my hurt grows and makes me mean and vengeful. But if hurt can change to kindness – that’s something Mama showed me – the world becomes a little less cruel.