“The people who support me and my dreams make me feel like I’m on top of the world.”

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.

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

Versace has always been a brand that I’ve loved, a brand that has supported me. I’ve been wearing Versace for so long, I come in here and I have friends here, and they really support what it is that I do. Our partnership has been great.

Dreamlining is so named because it applies timelines to what most would consider dreams.

Fear’s what puts dreams to sleep.

Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.

I dream of a world where the truth is what shapes people’s politics, rather than politics shaping what people think is true.

What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or does it explode?

A dream deferred is a dream denied.

My cinema – the ’50s, ’60s – is different from the cinema today so I thought that it would not be bad to show that kind of cinema where we could dream.

One of the characteristics of the dream is that nothing surprises us in it. With no regret, we agree to live in it with strangers, completely cut off from our habits and friends.