“My mom has given me my sense of style. She has taught me how individual style is so beautiful, what you appreciate on someone else might not be good for you. For her, style is all about being comfortable, and she has an innate sense of sophisticated style.”

My work is always very geometric.

My engineer dad is where my technical acumen comes from. I remember him taking me to the factories to see how what works.

I like architectural shapes. You can’t put any shape on any body, except on the runway. In reality, it has to look and feel flattering.

I remember an old Singer sewing machine at home that belonged to my grandmother. It had a pedal. My mom taught me how to use it when I was 12 years old. I used to find it so intriguing, how a flat piece of material could be made into an object that had so many uses.

Birds themselves are so interesting and intelligent, and they give so many cues without being verbal, so they say such great things.

I hope to grow another head and two more hands, like an Indian goddess.

It is painful beyond measure to lose a loving father and grandmother to violence.

When my father died, the money he left us would have dried up within a year were it not for my mother. We might very well have ended up on welfare.

Before my mother was a King, she was a gifted vocalist and musician, whose skill and academia garnered her a scholarship to the prestigious New England Conservatory for Music in Boston.

In 1985, I joined my mother in a protest against apartheid in which we were arrested at the South African embassy in Washington, D.C. And she was at President-elect Mandela’s side in Johannesburg when he claimed victory in South Africa’s first free elections.

Poverty is a divine stepmother who does for youths what their own mothers were unable to do. It introduces them to frugality, to the world and to life.

Before she was a King, my mother was a peace advocate, a courageous leader, and an accomplished artist.

There are days I’m feeling lazy, and my mom will remind me, ‘Beyonce also only has 24 hours during the day.’ That always keeps me going.

Among her many accomplishments, my mother is often identified as the leader of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday movement.