"I don't think I'm singing. I feel like I'm playing a horn."

"It's a wonder I didn't get killed, the way I carried on."

"I don't care what people think about me. I just do my own thing."

"When you're poor and black, you're born into a world that turns your heart into a tin can and anyone who is in the mood swings out and kicks you. You're only a hunk, a black creature in a white world …"

"I'm not a lady. I'm a woman."