I need instant gratification.
I was raised on the streets, in hot, steamy Brooklyn, with stifled air.
I was kind of a wild child. I wasn't taught the niceties of life.
I always wear the same thing at home. I can't be bothered with jewelry. My pants have elastic waists. I like to be comfortable. There are so many more important things to worry about.
My friend Quincy Jones says we won our first Grammys together in 1963. I have no recollection. I don't even remember the room. When he showed me the picture, I remembered what I wore. But it's like awards don't mean anything.
I never sing in the shower either.
I just became a singer, because I could never get work as an actress.
I'm a work in progress.
My mother never really thought I could become anything.
When I sing, people shut up.
It always gave me the creeps when I saw performers who desperately wanted the audience to like them. That's not what I'm about.
When they tried me out as a host on TV, I found that I just couldn't be that gregarious person. I was stranger than that.
When I was maybe 5 or 6 years old, the neighborhood girls would sit on the stoop and sing. I was known as the kid who had a good voice and no father.
I think when I was younger, I wanted to be a star, until I became a star, and then it's a lot of work. It's work to be a star. I don't enjoy the stardom part. I only enjoy the creative process.
Directing is so interesting. You know, it just sort of encompasses everything that you see, that you know, that you've felt, that you have observed.
I like to stay home a lot. I like to do other things too, like decorate or build.
Sometimes you resent the people you love and need the most. Love is so fascinating in all its forms, and I think everyone who has ever been a mother will relate to this.
When I was working a lot, I felt guilty as a parent. I couldn't pick up my son every day from school, bake him cookies and that kind of thing.
I guess if you have an original take on life, or something about you is original, you don't have to study people who came before you. You don't have to mimic anybody. You just have a gut feeling inside, an instinct that tells you what's right for you, and you can't do it in any other way.
I started going to acting school when I was 14, and I would always have my own take on things.
