Being around people like Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick and Roberta Flack. . . had a great impact on me as a singer, as a performer, as a musician.

Growing around [great musicians], you just can't help it. I identified with it immediately. It was something that was so natural to me that when I started singing, it was almost like speaking.

God gave me a voice to sing with, and when you have that, what other gimmick is there?

I was aware of people staring at me. No one moved. They seemed almost in trance. I just stared at the clock in the center of the church. When I finished, everyone clapped and started crying.

I don't like it when they [media critics] see me as this little person who doesn't know what to do with herself -- like I have no idea what I want, like I'm just a puppet . . . . That's demeaning to me, because that ain't how it is, and it never was.