“I don’t have a background in music, and I have a short attention span. If you put me in the studio every day, I’m gonna get lost.”

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

I have an abundant amount of love in my life, and I’m grateful for that.

I made this and have too much to say about it.

I wasn’t popular in high school; I had no friends.

There’s something different about growing up black and Muslim, especially in New Jersey. It’s like when I left the mosque and I left my dad, I felt unprotected, but I also felt a weird sense of pride, like I was involved in this other way of living that was cool to me.

But have we ever really been lost? Or have we just not been paying attention.

There can be no settlement of a great cause without discussion, and people will not discuss a cause until their attention is drawn to it.

I always tell people, ‘Coming from such a big Mexican family when there’s a new baby every three weeks, you have to do something to get someone’s attention.’

I want it all: I want the attention and live for the glory nights.

If you’re paying attention and you’ve been a good listener, you learn every day.

It ain’t that I’m too big to listen to the rumors, It’s just that I’m too damn big to pay attention to ’em.

We need to keep ringing the bell, wake people up to get our democracy together. Farm workers are like a symbol, and it is good that people are paying attention.

I have to actively put effort into reminding myself of how far I’ve come so I do not only pay attention to how far I have yet to go.