The house where I grew up in the Hancock Park section of Los Angeles was like a dream - even though my family faced threats after my father bought it in August 1948.

My idols are Janis Joplin and Annie Lennox, who are neither of them from the typical pop culture.

I don't think that my parents even imagined that I would be exposed to drugs. In those days, for some reason, it was not talked about, just like sex was not talked about.

I think that I sound a lot better than Diana Ross.

Losing people is dark, but some things you just have to accept.

By the time I approached my forties, I had the self-assurance to approach all the genres I love so deeply: R & B, rock, jazz, and pop.

I'm a born-again Christian. I was raised Episcopalian - I've always been of a Christian faith, but I became much more active in it when I married my first husband, Marvin. I changed from Episcopalian to Baptist.

I would hate to look back on my life and go, 'You know, I wanted to do a rock n' roll album. I should have, and I never did.'

It's important to wallow and grieve when you have a health issue. I don't think you really get the best stuff out of life until you've had the worst stuff.

I've had my share of doing things that I really wish I hadn't done.

I never got to make that transition from little girl to young woman... and that really screws you up.

There's inevitably something missing when you grow up in this kind of an environment when your parents travel a lot. When your father is famous, you are looked at and expected of. There are standards you need to meet.

We had some wonderful people raising us, but they still weren't our parents. As you get older, it gets distorted and convoluted, complicated, and, of course, you start looking for attention, affection, affinity in all the wrong places and in all the wrong ways.

God was going to be to me the father that I never had, the father that I didn't have enough of, enough time with.

I managed to survive the worst things any entertainer could possibly go through.

I imagine there are a lot of people who will never be able to accept me because they feel I've let them down, but I am a different person, and most people have welcomed me back in that spirit.

Las Vegas has the type of audience - and they haven't changed since my father's days - they're still boring and bored. And there's only that handful of artists that they really enjoy and know how to respond to.

I've always been interested in the office. I was a secretary a long time ago, and I've always been into paperwork. My first secretarial job was 1965 or 1966.

I was pretty young, but because of that first record, 'Cole Espanol,' we took our first trip - well, my first trip - to Mexico.

As kids, we had no clue about the racial stuff that seemed to preoccupy adults. We just enjoyed our life as kids.

I had to make peace with my past because I can't change it.

I think people just want to be popular. So they're going to write lyrics that are going to get your attention. You know, sometimes, they're a little graphic, and I don't think that's so necessary.

I think we need to be sexy and kind of mysterious and still pretty and beautiful. I like to hear that when a man sings. I don't really want to hear about taking my clothes off.

I couldn't breathe. I - I went into - literally, my kidneys stopped functioning. They stopped, you know, processing the fluid that was starting to build up in my body.

I continually acted up to get attention. My father gave me that, and once he left, I felt that I didn't have any.

I can laugh at myself because I've had to. Everything would have been much worse if I'd been the singing son of Nat 'King' Cole.

If you don't have dialysis, absolutely, you will die. Dialysis is actually keeping me alive.

I started saying, 'I don't want to be crazy anymore.' I need to make some changes. And the first thing I started doing was just got all the men out of my life, because that was a big problem for me. That was a crutch, if you will. You know, trying to define yourself through other people or men, in particular.

The worst I think that I ever was, when 'Unforgettable' had come out, and not long after that I was on - I was on my way to my second divorce. And that was a crushing, crushing blow.

I still love recording and still love the stage, but like my dad, I have the most fun when I am in front of that glorious orchestra or that kick-butt big band.

When I sang my father's songs in concert, that was all people wanted to hear. I was always asking myself, 'Can I measure up?'

I've always adored my father's music, but ever since I'd started singing, whether it was while I was still a student at the University of Massachusetts or professionally, I avoided Dad's material.

I'd sometimes fly for 14 hours, then go straight to dialysis. I spent a little time being tired, but we managed. I'm not a pity-party person.

Like my father, I don't want to see anyone mistreated, anything like that. I'm very racial-conscious because my father had a lot of, you know, challenges in the area of race. I'm very sensitive to that kind of issue.

One thing that stays the same is my passion for music. Other than that, I've become more dedicated. I think that I really work much harder than I ever did when I first started at my craft; I'm more dedicated, and I have become a perfectionist.

My father was a pioneer in so many ways. He was fearless, and I think that I kind of picked that up from him as well.

Being my dad's daughter has allowed me to do a lot of things that maybe another artist might not be able to do or wouldn't be necessarily embraced doing.

I didn't realize I was still grieving for my father at 30-something.

I get hugs all the time from strangers. I do believe that people can feel your persona when you perform live, but it is one of the nicest things if you can translate that on your records.

I think people hear the warmth in my voice and the friendliness, and they think: 'Oh, she must be a very nice person'.

There were so many groups that I had in college, but I was always the solo singer. But what made it so unusual back in the day was that I was a black girl playing with all these white musicians, and I was also singing rock music on top of it.

When you reach 50, what you care about is being honest, being accurate, and being an example.

I like to grow and experiment, and as an artist, it's about kicking the bar up a little.

People say I look younger than the music I'm doing just because the songs are older. Hopefully I can keep my youthful look!

We have to stop rewarding bad behavior.

Even when I had no money, I spent everything I had on clothes.

The dialysis is to wash my blood, to keep my kidneys functioning.

I love what I do so much. I just keep going. Not much can bring me down.

I thank my dad for leaving me such a wonderful, wonderful heritage.

There are a lot of great artists with great voices who aren't singing what they should be singing.