It's still a political statement to stand on stage as a person of color and be excellent. We still need those images to combat the narrative we're often fed - as someone innately inferior or inexorably linked with lack.

My dad was an early hip-hop fan.

We didn't go to Broadway musicals when I was growing up; it was too expensive.

I remember Ella Fitzgerald sort of coming into my life like a bolt of lightning - like, what is that? It was one of the purest examples of God in art that I'd ever seen.

I've dedicated more than 15 years to this theater and television thing; I want to spend the next 10, 15 years or so devoted to music.

I can only imagine what the show would have meant to me as a 16- or 17-year-old. I know what 'Rent' meant to me in my life, how that show changed the course of my life, and we can only hope that 'Hamilton' will have the same effect on a few kids.

I haven't had a chance to decorate my dressing room yet, but I have these pictures of myself as a kid that I want to put up because I said, 'I really want to make sure that I take that kid with me on this journey.' I want him to experience this.

They're people who had flaws and who had affairs and had sex and had scandals, and very rarely do we look at the totality of our heroes' lives.

I'm so excited about my new partnership with the talented and motivated team at S-Curve Records!

What's a better foundation for drama? You have power, you have ambition, you have sex... that's the stuff of drama.

I have to remind myself that it may never be this good again.

What is the future going to say about us now? What are our kids going to look at us and say, 'How could you not stop that person from getting into power? How could you not stop that environmental disaster that you saw coming a mile away?'

Tea time is a chance to slow down, pull back and appreciate our surroundings.

Good manners are cost effective. They not only increase the quality of life in the workplace, they contribute to employee morale, embellish the company image, and play a major role in generating profit.

Chivalry isn't dead. It's just no longer gender-based.

Politeness decrees that you must listen to be kind; intelligence decrees that you must listen to learn.

If you really screw up, send roses.

When in doubt, look at what everyone else is doing.

I talk about beepers going off in the middle of a concert and people being late and not apologizing, and people not RSVP-ing, and adult children going back to live with their parents, which we didn't have in the '60s and '70s.

A bride is a bride the first time around. The white dress and the white veil are symbolic. So many people are breaking the rules that people don't know what the rules are.

When writing a thank-you if you've had lunch with someone downtown, send an e-mail. If somebody is giving you a dinner party in his or her home and all the work that takes, that person deserves a written thank-you.

Jeans should never be worn to someone's home if you are having dinner there.

If you care enough to look right, you care enough to act right. And vice versa.

If you are someone's guest on a corporate jet, the most important thing to remember is not just to be on time, but to be early. If you hold up the departure of the jet by as much as 10 minutes, you may cause the plane to wait in line for another hour or two before obtaining new clearance.

Business colleagues who have not seen each other for a long time but who have a good relationship can always shake hands warmly and grab each other's right upper arm or shoulder with their free left hand. Men and women executives should not kiss each other in public.

When you pass 70, you forget your enemies. You think about the nice people instead.

We're a nation of latchkey children. Manners start at home, and no one is at home teaching manners so that children have respect for others.

If you're making a social call, don't call past 8 P.M. The evening is a time when people need a respite from their work - a time to unwind, uninterrupted.

Manners make the world work. They're not only based on kindness but also efficiency. When people know what to do, the world is smoother. When no one knows what to do, it's chaos.

We need to reach out - spend more time together.

There are major CEOs who do not know how to hold a knife and fork properly, but I don't worry about that as much as the lack of kindness.

Nothing gets on other people's nerves at the office more than a whistler. And the sad part is, these whistlers don't know they're doing it. Someone should, tactfully, tell the whistler how much it disrupts the office environment.

Administrations had come and gone in Pennsylvania Avenue, but many old entertaining traditions had survived - thru habit and not thru merit.

It's nice to compliment people on what they're wearing, but don't make insincere compliments.

Knowing when and where to sit is something every young executive should learn. A junior person who comes barging into a room and takes any seat he wants catches the disapproving eye of senior management.

For every step forward in electronic communications, we've taken two steps back in humanity. People know how to use a computer and answering machines but have forgotten how to connect with one another. Our society is unraveling. We're too self-obsessed.

A really first-class company uses really fine stationery.

I've had a charmed life.

What the bride should do is call guests who have young children and say: 'I'd love to have the kids at the wedding, but we won't have room. Would you get a baby sitter, and when we get back from our honeymoon, we'll have you guys over?'

Make people have a smile when they finish your e-mail.

We have a lot of societal problems that we have to fix in the 1990s.

The best thing we can do to save the planet is set a good example for our kids at home.

The Kennedys tried to avoid using the big U-shaped table, but when they couldn't, they had several tricks - including keeping the flowers simple - to keep it from appearing overly stiff and formal.

I don't care what your politics are, I would wager that if you asked any American woman which administration would she have most liked to work for as social secretary, she would pick Jacqueline Kennedy's White House as the place to be.

An excellent wine, someone's best attempt at cooking, and the candles and flowers on the table can turn the simplest dinner into an unforgettably romantic event.

It's stylish to have people over. But unstylish to make them bring food. It's so tacky, making everybody appear at the door with a dish. Better to order in, use a caterer or bring prepared food into your kitchen.

The First Lady has a lot of power. I hope Hillary Clinton realizes that.

I was considered the luckiest of all the female gypsies since I landed the job as social secretary to Ambassador and Mrs. David Bruce at the American Embassy.

Going to a party uninvited always has been a negative action. It never has been acceptable. At the very least, it upsets kitchen preparations, parking arrangements, and even details such as space for hanging coats and depositing dripping umbrellas.

If somebody is disrespecting somebody, we should step in - even at the risk of getting slugged over the head.