Gospel music was the thing that inspired me as a child growing up on a cotton farm, where work was drudgery and it was so hard that when I was in the field I sang all the time. Usually gospel songs because they lifted me up above that black dirt.

I remember that I was never able to get along at school. I was at the foot of the class.

My parents were very strict. They thought boarding school would do me good. So, when I was about seven, I was put in one in India for a while.

Believe it or not, I thank my mom for how she raised me in a neighborhood where I had to jump and chase daily. It only made me what I am today.

I was brought up differently than the average American child because the average child is brought up expecting to be happy.

I wanted to be a skinny little ballerina but I was a voluptuous little Italian girl whose dad had meatballs on the table every night.