“The more people see of me, the more they’ll realize that all I’m good for is making tunes.”

I’m my own worst critic, and if I don’t pull off what I think I wanted to do in my head, then I won’t be a happy girl.

You’ve got a degree in philosophy; so you think you’re cleverer than me. But I’m not just some drama queen. Cause it’s where you’re at, not where you’ve been.

I know definitive points in my life and in relationships because of my songs. I write my music so that I’ll never be bored of it.

The dark covers me and I cannot run now.

I can’t help you if you won’t help yourself.

I’m much healthier now.

It’s important for me to be with a musician or someone who has a creative mind.

There’s no point in saying anything but the truth.

I’ve never been a boyfriend kind of girl.

I love to live and I live to love.

Sisters come before carpet burns and blisters.

I’d like to be remembered as someone who wasn’t satisfied with just one level of musicianship as someone who was a pioneer.

I never went round to loads of managers saying ‘this is what I have, this is my product and I’m going to be famous so you’d better sign me up.’ They came to me.

I would love to study guitar or trumpet.

I don’t understand, Why do I stress the man, When there’s so many bigger things at hand?

Music was my ultimate ambition but I liked all of it. I wanted to discipline myself in dance and acting too and I’d done all three since I was 9-years-old. I could sing, but I didn’t become a great singer.

I don’t like age barriers. I don’t like when people treat you differently when they find out how old you are.

I’ve always just simply seen myself as an actor. And I believe that it serves me well to just think in terms of my craft. If hypothetically, I saw myself only as a sex symbol, or as some other limited stereotype, I think I would feel like a complete failure.

I am not a writer, but I feel that when our production company is successful, we’ll be able to give some young writers with fresh voices an opportunity to put their work out there.

There is a terrific apprehension among some people that blacks will take over the sport… It will create problems because their behavior, speech and dress is just a completely different culture.

Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, /May be refin’d and join th’ angelic train.

You look back at people like Elvis and The Beatles and still get their music because it’s timeless. That’s what I want.

In a free society we will tolerate boorish people, who have abhorrent behavior, but if we’re civilized people we publicly criticize that and don’t belong to those groups or associate with those people.

As an artist, you’ve got to see the mess. That’s what we do. We get a human being, and it’s like putting together a puzzle. And the puzzle has got to be a mixture, a multifaceted mixture of human emotions, and not all of it is going to be pretty.