“There are times I can’t even figure myself out.”

It’s fun to be creative and innovative and come up with something crazy. So I need people to work with who are not going to be afraid to take it to the left a bit.

It’s in how you carry yourself. I’ve always been a very mature person, and I’ve always known what I wanted. And I go after it no matter what.

People are gonna look up to me because I’m young, black, and female.

I began to work the stage and get the audience into it. I also learned how to have fun out there. It is something I will never forget.

I think it’s important to take a break, you know, from the public eye for a while, and give people a chance to miss you. I want longevity. I don’t want to get out there and run myself ragged and spread myself thin.

If you want to go to the mall, you have to take security. But it’s always cool. The kids are amazing.

I know that people think I’m sexy and I am looked at as that. It is cool with me. It’s wonderful to have sexy appeal. If you embrace it, it can be a very beautiful thing.

The Matrix is top secret. There isn’t much that can be said right now.

There is always a bit of pressure to do a good album – to do good work, period. I really put a lot of pressure on myself, more so than other people. But I try not to let that overwhelm me to the point where I can’t even do good work. I just put it aside and do the best that I know that I can.

When a fan comes up to you and says I love your music, there’s nothing better than that.

It’s Friday and I’m ready to swing. Pick up my girls and hit the party scene.

I go through the same problems all young people go through. Being in this business, I accept that there are positives and negatives but having a strong family base and a belief in God enables me to weather the storms.

I want people to remember me as a full on entertainer and a good person.

My parents just tell me, ‘If you know what you want, you should stay determined and go for it. You can do anything.’

You have to enjoy your job; you should wake up every day and love what you do… I honestly do… From the bottom of my heart to the depths of my soul. I’m truly happy.

There are times in my life when I just want to be by myself.

You cannot guess or measure the terrible endless longing to see the gates opened, and to be able to join the white figures within.

I rarely use mythology for its own sake because, as a theatre person, the mythological figures are in fact humanity to the ninth degree and Yoruba mythology in particular has fascination of being one of the most humanised mythologies in the world.

I like to sit on things and digest them and then I’ll figure out my next move, but I never said I was right for doing anything.

There is no more effective medicine to apply to feverish public sentiments than figures.

Chemistry is a class you take in high school or college, where you figure out two plus two is 10, or something.

Through seven figures come sensations for a man; there is hearing for sounds, sight for the visible, nostril for smell, tongue for pleasant or unpleasant tastes, mouth for speech, body for touch, passages outwards and inwards for hot or cold breath. Through these come knowledge or lack of it.

I wanted to take up guitar because playing piano is a little harder. Carrying a keyboard around is harder, and finding a real piano is much harder, and I wanted to play live more, so I figured a guitar would be easier to carry around.

When someone is a musician – trying to make a living off being a public figure – it’s really easy for people to see me as a face on a screen that doesn’t have a personal life.