The climate in the '50s and '60s for black performers or black people in the entertainment business was atrocious. It was atrocious.

What's so fascinating and frustrating and great about life is that you're constantly starting over, all the time, and I love that.

I'm going to go on just living and laughing and loving.

It is better to look good than to feel good.

To be good, you need to believe in what you're doing.

Women need a reason to have sex, men just need a place.

At 60, I could do the same things I could do at 30, if I could only remember what those things are.

By the time a man is wise enough to watch his step, he's too old to go anywhere.

Change is such hard work.

Michael was so shy, he'd sit down and sing behind the couch with his back to me while I sat with my hands over my eyes-and the lights off.

I've met every freak in the business.

Did you know you would become as successful as you have? Hell, no. But you know what? You were prepared, baby.

I improvised my life along the way - I just moved step-by-step. And I knew that if I got better, something would happen.

I don't deserve a Songwriters Hall of Fame Award. But fifteen years ago, I had a brain operation and I didn't deserve that, either. So I'll keep it.

Arts is just as important as military defense, you know? Emotional defense is just as important.

I was reading Omar Khayyam, Kahlil Gibran, Rumi, L. Ron Hubbard, all sorts of philosophy. Bebop cats are like that. Curious. I wanted to know about everything.

Everybody has their idiosyncrasies.

Every country can be defined through their food, their music and their language. That's the soul of a country.

A song should have all the color and beauty of every rose.