When I decided to be a singer, my mother warned me I'd be alone a lot. Basically we all are.

No one makes me do anything I don’t want to do.

You don’t have a baby based on that publicity madness. People don’t live like that. Especially black people who were raised in families with morals and standards and integrity.

I wanted to be a teacher. I love children, so I wanted to deal with children. Then I wanted to be a veterinarian. But by the age of ten or eleven, when I opened my mouth and said, ‘Oh, God, what’s this?’ I kind of knew teaching and being a veterinarian were gonna have to wait.

I love to sing, but it’s just not fun anymore.

I’m not crazy about arenas just because I can sell them out. It doesn’t do anything for my ego at all. I want to play places where people don’t have to sit in the nosebleed seats and wonder what the hell is going on.

What’s in your soul is in your soul.

When I decided to be a singer, my mother warned me I’d be alone a lot. Basically we all are. Loneliness comes with life.

Sometimes you do have a good time. But when it gets to the point where you’re sitting in your home and you’re just trying to cover what you don’t want people to know. It’s painful. And then you want more just so that you don’t let anybody see you cry. Or anybody to see we’re not happy.

I’m just fiercely protective. It’s like, that’s my lair and nobody messes with my lair.