“I just simply believe in having purposeful relations, period. That’s what its about at the end of the day.”

I get a kick out of making a strangers day.

I refuse to accept the idea that money is evil. People make things evil and negative.

All music now is influenced by Hip Hop. It’s so deeply ingrained in the culture.

All of my close friends have been in my life for years. My best friends are all people I met in grade school, going back as far as 3rd grade.

I’m pretty grounded in a lifestyle which disciplines me and gives me a sense of familiarity and comfort.

I was born and raised in Dallas, Texas and seasonally lived in New Orleans and Boston.

There’s very few shows that truly reflect specific ethnic experiences, and when they come and come right, they’re a hit.

I have a unique ability to mock everything. I’m a sponge by nature, thats what my environment made me.

I’m reminded everyday that I was born to do great things, I believe that and when it’s my time I shall.

It feels good to turn on the TV and have options, a variety. That’s why television is so good.

Actors don’t act, we’re just being in a different circumstance and scenario.

I know when to go and when to stop. I’m the red, the yellow, and the green light. That’s me in a nutshell.

As for super-stardom, I can say that I’m ready for anything. I feel like I’ve mastered so many stages in my life and the cool thing is, I don’t see that energy changing anything.

I think it’s really important to teach our children about their lineage and it especially makes a difference if you share that information while they’re young.

I’ve always been an actress, entertaining my family was the start. I’m a goof ball among many of my cousins and siblings.

I think it’s a beautiful thing how Hip Hop is received by the world.

Music is more of a hobby to me than my hobbies, if that makes sense.

I started to take a keen interest in food when I was 16 years old.

When I was a young teenager my mother always encouraged my brother, my sister and I to get involved in the kitchen.

Mom loved my brother more. Not that she didn’t love me – I felt the wash of her love every day.

I first heard Laura Branigan sing live in my brother Nesuhi’s apartment, where we had gone because he had a very good piano. I immediately realized that she had a great pop voice, in the classical sense.

The Muslim world is deeply hurt by the campaign of violence initiated against our Palestinian brothers.

The Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame will provide a center where the lives and the artistry of the greatest jazz musicians will be celebrated, and where people will come to learn about jazz, something to which my brother devoted his lifes work.

It was hard to speed the male child up the stony heights of erudition, but it was harder still to check the female child at the crucial point, and keep her tottering decorously behind her brother.