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

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.

The essential elements of giving are power and love - activity and affection - and the consciousness of the race testifies that in the high and appropriate exercise of these is a blessedness greater than any other.

Two days after moving we recommended ourselves to God, Our Lord, and fled, hoping that, although it was late in the season and the fruits of the tunas were giving out, by remaining in the field we might still get over a good portion of the land.

I didn't know at the time that the energy that I was giving off was like a battle Emcee.

For it is in giving that we receive.

All my pictures are built around the idea of getting in trouble and so giving me the chance to be desperately serious in my attempt to appear as a normal little gentleman.

This bored fantastic woman, with her animal nature, giving herself the pleasure of seeing her enemy struck down, not a particularly keen one for her because she is so weary of having all her desires satisfied.

While Kuwait is not a democracy, giving only half the population a voice in their government is not a policy this Congress should support and one that I am glad that Kuwait's leaders are changing.

When you take a look at the problems our country is facing, debt is No. 1. The math is downright scary and the credit markets aren't going to keep on giving us cheap rates.

Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore.

The second is the structure and source of cults. They have always haunted me, and I wanted to explore the fundamental notion of giving up responsibility to an outside power.

New technologies such as solar systems or hybrid cars aren't created overnight. By extending these tax credits we are giving this industry time to grow, branch out and succeed.

My idea of managing is giving the ball to Tom Seaver and sitting down and watching him work.

I don't think anyone wants a reader to be completely lost - certainly not to the point of giving up - but there's something to be said for a book that isn't instantly disposable, that rewards a second reading.

I believe that the average guy in the street will give up a great deal, if he really understands the cost of not giving it up. In fact, we may find that, while we're drastically cutting our energy consumption, we're actually raising our standard of living.

We had avoided discovery by the Sioux scouts, and we were confident of giving them a complete surprise.

It is giving me a great satisfaction, because I had the notion that we could make great wines equal to the greatest wines in the world, and everybody said it was impossible.

Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.

Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.

All of us are mad. If it weren't for the fact every one of us is slightly abnormal, there wouldn't be any point in giving each person a separate name.

The mark of a true professional is giving more than you get.

Sharing is sometimes more demanding than giving.

I want the privilege of guiding the arrows of my children and giving them the exhortations that can shoot them into the high place.