"Growing up with the childhood that I had, I learned to never let a man make me feel helpless, and it also embedded a deep need in me to always stick up for women."

"I'm not really religious but very spiritual. I give money to this company that manufactures hearing aids on a regular basis. More people should really hear me sing. I have a gift from God."

"The most vulnerable people have tough exteriors because they are very scared inside, and it's very hard for people like that - people like me - to open up. But playing it safe means you stop being open to learning. I always try to find the challenges."

"I should not have to prove my ethnicity to anyone. I know who I am."

"The beauty of the unknown is that the most profound truths are found in silence."

"I had a pretty sexual imagination for a kid."

"Beauty is indeed a good gift of God but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked."

"The beauty of the unknown is that the legacy we leave is written in the hearts of others."