I'm no different than you.

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

When I look into the crowd, I see young and old, black and white - it's amazing that I'm able to connect with so many different kinds of people.

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

I'll perform all the way to the grave.

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

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.

I never thought I would be singing for the world.

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.

I'm very shy in a crowd.

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

You've got to know business before you go to show business.

I was very shy. I'm still shy.

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

I'm very spontaneous.

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

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.

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.

I'm no different than you.

I've had 60 years of ups and downs, and all of the downs that I've had, I'm happy that I've had them because it's taught me to appreciate all the ups.

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

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

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

I have to go 150 percent or nothing at all.

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

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.

History is laden with belligerent leaders using humanitarian rhetoric to mask geopolitical aims. History also shows how often ill-informed moralism has led to foreign entanglements that do more harm than good.

Humans are upsetting a fragile balance that their own human ancestors established.

Little girls made of sugar and spice grow up to be darling young women that we call our niece.

Someone bent on suicide won't have much sense of humor left.

I don't think the game should be perfect. It's 95 percent mistakes out there - you have to work with 10 players on your side and another 11 against you. It's a crazy, chaotic game.

I've seen a fair bit of the States and the rest of the world, and I'm convinced that there's nowhere I'd be happier, there's nowhere I'm missing out on because I'm in N.Y.

And his unkindness may defeat my life, But never taint my love.

Instruments sound sweetest when they are touched softest.

I never go sexy. I'm more into a well-made pair of pants and a good shoe.

Whenever our neighbour's house is on fire, it cannot be amiss for the engines to play a little on our own.

The measure of your quality as a public person, as a citizen, is the gap between what you do and what you say.

Every positive attempt was as a result of encouragement every encouragement leads to success.

Digital imaging allows both groups to rise above the limitations of mess and clutter and mechanics, and apply our talents to creating images limited only by our imaginations.

When it comes down to it, it's giving people a good night out in a basic way and I think my company guarantees that. There's always something new and something to excite us and surprise us, and that's why people come back, I hope.

A woman's body is her body and what she wears or does not wear is her choice. Get over it and move on.

If you're secure in yourself, and even if you're not secure in yourself, you don't need to bully.

I have come to the conclusion that the most important element in human life is faith.

Teenage life - possibly adult life too is all about what you want and can't have. And then about what you receive and misuse.

Scientology is much more accepted in Hollywood than Jesus.

Our educational system is not preparing people for the 21st Century. Failure is an essential part of entrepreneurship. If you work hard, you can get an 'A' pretty much guaranteed, but in entrepreneurship, that's not how it works.

I can be maternal with my friends.

A good book ought to bring out lots of different responses from those that read it - none of them pre-planned, and all of them very personal. Whatever they take away from the reading of the book is valuable.