"I don’t want to be a passenger in my own life."

"Who would deduce the dragonfly from the larva, the iris from the bud, the lawyer from the infant? ...We are all shape-shifters and magical reinventors. Life is really a plural noun, a caravan of selves."

"Words are small shapes in the gorgeous chaos of the world."

"It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between."

"Wonder is the heaviest element on the periodic table. Even a tiny fleck of it stops time."

"I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well."

"Criticism, even when you try to ignore it, can hurt. I have cried over many articles written about me, but I move on and I don't hold on to that ."

"When we first began, we didn't have any hits."

"I majored in fashion design in school, and I have always wanted to design my own line of clothing, jewelry, and stuff like that; so this was just a step for me in that direction."

"You see, I've never really studied acting."

"I learned something from that. If someone asks me something that I really don't want to do, I say no. I have to trust that. And I'm not afraid to talk money."

"I don't judge people by their sexual orientation or the color of their skin, so I find it really hard to identify someone by saying that they're a gay person or a black person or a Jewish person."

"I was looking at making a shift in my career. I've been so blessed I'd like to be able to give that back. If I could find young artists, young performers I can nurture to have a career I would really like that."

"With the Supremes I made so much money so fast all I wanted to do was buy clothes and pretty things. Now I'm comfortable with money and it's comfortable with me."

"No, nothing really upsets me."

"I just appreciate still having the longevity that I've had in my career."

"I listen to most everything that's out there because I need to stay aware of what's happening in the industry."

"Being a parent is very important to me."

"I have never gotten into the label thing."

"If I'm with a man I'm soft and buttery."

"My children come first and the career comes in around that."

"I'd traveled a lot, was going temporarily insane and became very successful, but there was no one to take that all home to."

"I even thought of adopting a child as a single mother."

"It takes a long time to get to be a diva. I mean, you gotta work at it."