“I take pride in working very hard. You need to understand that hard work doesn’t instantly pay off. My career grew gradually and taught me a lesson every step of the way.”

As blacks, all we got is sports and entertainment. That’s the only way out the hood sometimes.

I wish I never fell so deep in love with you and now it ain’t no way we can be friends.

I don’t think music can be held. I don’t think artists can be put into boxes or places. It’s all about creating and making the best music you can.

I think everybody gets lonely sometimes. I don’t know if people can ever understand how you can be in a room full of people and be lonely sometimes.

Change is a natural form of progression.

From the music I make, to the things I do in my life, I’m true to my R&B core.

I love Calvin Klein underwear. That’s the only kind of underwear I wear.

Petersburg, growing up at home, all by my family and friends, Petersburg really, city-raised me, you know everybody there.

I’ve never really been settled. I don’t think I’ve ever known what it was like to be a person that was used to sitting still. I think it’s given me the ability to detach from any situation.

It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t get a little nasty.

The first tattoo I got was when I was 17, and it’s a cross on my bicep with ‘Only God Can Judge Me’ underneath.

Style is a display of character. It’s also a great way to express yourself and the ladies like it.

I think ‘selfies’ are fun and expressive, as long as you don’t get carried away with it.

In my dressing room, you’ll definitely find some Starbursts and Skittles. I have a lot of candles that remind me of home, and a humidifier for my voice. I also have some digital Kodak albums where I have pictures of my friends and family.

A lot of people perceive women as sexy based on their outer appeal. But there’s no way to mistake if a woman is confident.

Singing wasn’t a reality for me, until other people started noticing I sounded good.

What I do now is all my dad’s fault, because he bought me a guitar as a boy, for no apparent reason.

Right now we have an economy in trouble, and someone who spent their career in the economy is more suited to help fix the economy than someone who spent his life in politics and as a community organizer.

I hope to be around past the 90’s. I don’t want to just be categorized as one of this era. My goal is to have a career that stands.

It’s your career, your face, your name. You have to be in control because if something gets messed up or something doesn’t look how you want it to, you’re the only one to blame.

I’m trying to mix the cool, independent stuff with the big stuff, but it’s been difficult finding the right roles. It’s been an interesting ride as far as my career pendulum is concerned

My life, my career has been like a roller coaster. I’ve either been an enormous success or just a down-and-out failure.

It’s important to drive your own ship, and it’s your career, so you might as well take it by the reins.

It is commonly believed that anyone who tabulates numbers is a statistician. This is like believing that anyone who owns a scalpel is a surgeon.