“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.”

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.

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.

I think clothes are very much a representation of your attitude and the way you feel. I really love to be dressed down, though.

Your opinion about yourself influences your ability to pay your bills.

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.

Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you.

If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create.

In painting, you have unlimited power. You have the ability to move mountains. You can bend rivers. But when I get home, the only thing I have power over is the garbage.

Ability is a poor man’s wealth.

If your title disappears, does your ability to influence?

Mutual caring relationships require kindness and patience, tolerance, optimism, joy in the other’s achievements, confidence in oneself, and the ability to give without undue thought of gain.