“I don’t care how much money you have, free stuff is always a good thing.”

Most people don’t have so much talent that they can become a success all their own. We all need people to help us and lift us up.

To me, I always felt like I was carrying a torch for women of any size to be themselves – it doesn’t matter whether you’re a size 2 or a 22, just be who you are.

Every woman is a queen, and we all have different things to offer.

Dreams become reality when we put our minds to it.

It’s not always easy to do the right thing. But, doing the right thing makes you strong, it builds character.

Be bold, be brave enough to be your true self.

I write pretty often. I have a home studio. Music is what I do for fun. I never get tired of it, so to take a break from [TV and movies], I would go make some music.

If my brother and I wanted money in our pockets, we had to get jobs – my first was at 15, at Burger King.

There are different flavours of sexiness.

There are so many things I’d like to do. Like becoming a parent. To me that is the next natural progression in life.

You need to give yourself the time to think freely. I don’t know if that is political. But sometimes things are political because you observe things that are right or that are wrong and you want to speak on them.

I was taught from a young age that many people would treat me as a second-class citizen because I was African-American and because I was female.

You can huff and puff. But blow me down? I doubt it kid, or you get your ass whupped.

When I was around 18, I looked in the mirror and said, ‘You’re either going to love yourself or hate yourself.’ And I decided to love myself. That changed a lot of things.

I think as far as the music industry is concerned, it’s kind of been the wild, wild West in a way with the Internet, which is not necessarily a bad thing to me.

I do feel like I have a direct connection with God for some reason; always have since I was a little kid – I would talk to God, talk to the sky.

Not only are love and hate such closely related emotions, but it’s a lot easier to hate someone you’ve cared about than someone you never have.

Many of our cares are but a morbid way of looking at our privileges

We must absolutely take care of one another.

I feel like I don’t really care about impressing other people. I thoroughly enjoy impressing myself.

Evil isn’t prejudiced. It doesn’t care what you look like; it just wants a place to rest. It’s up to you whether you give it that place.

Love is more than a noun-it is a verb; it is more than a feeling-it is caring, sharing, helping, sacrificing.

The essence of life is to care. The beauty of life is to give.

Love seeketh not itself to please, nor for itself hath any care, but for another gives its ease, and builds a Heaven in Hell’s despair.