“We’re changing little girls’ lives across the world, and we didn’t even know what we were doing when we started.”

Searchin for peace be like fishing for water.

I’m a visual learner, so the film is a huge inspiration to me.

I’ve been known to wear pajamas onstage for the sole reason of wanting to make sure I’m free enough to execute new things vocally on stage and give my best performance possible.

I live in my imagination, so sometimes movies help me get lost. I feel like I’m in it.

I was raised orthodox Muslim. Very sheltered, very conservative.

I was a funky kid.

I was a gymnast for 13 years, so I was heavy into sports.

I just think I have too much anxiety to listen to music. Sometimes it feels like noise, and sometimes it’s so affecting that I can’t recover from it.

I love folk. I love rap.

I learned everything the hard way – like, literally, everything. I know that God does that to people that he has lessons for. I just wish that I had learned less extreme lessons.

Wearing a hijab never made me feel any more conservative – it made me feel safe. Then, after 9/11, I became the butt of a joke on the playground, so I stopped wearing it. Kids can be really cruel when you’re the only black girl in your Girl Scout troop.

I feel like when you say ‘activist,’ you have to have so much clarity, and I don’t always necessarily have so much clarity on how I want to help others, I just have this weird, deep urge to help other people. I’m trying to let God guide my body and use it as whatever kind of vehicle or vessel it needs to be.

It starts with trusting yourself, even if people are telling you you’re too young to trust yourself.

I want to excel at something, to follow through, to not be afraid.

Mental health and family above all things. Period.

I don’t listen to my own music, so to me, it’s awesome that people really like it. I was afraid that it wouldn’t connect with everyone. I’m more appreciative than anything. SZA

Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change.

Music is your way to change the frequencies of everything around you and move your own body, move your whole environment.

Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.

Everything changes once we identify with being the witness to the story, instead of the actor in it.

There is no evildoer who could not be made good for something.

In the blink of an eye, everything can change! Why waste time?

Even if we didn’t know the context, we were instructed to remember that context existed. Everyone on earth, they’d tell us, was carrying around an unseen history, and that alone deserved some tolerance.

How we grind make the weather change for us.