“I’ve been in front of the camera a million times as a musician, and even directed a few music videos. So, I know a lot about spacing, focus, blocking, etcetera. So, acting isn’t totally new for me. Still, I find it fascinating, because you actually get to be another person.”

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.

It’s kind of a hybrid, half movie, half play, presented in a proscenium fashion – the camera’s on one side of the line, the set on the other, the audience sitting behind the cameras.

I actually think film and TV are sort of the same thing now. To me they’re all motion pictures. There’s a camera, a script, other actors and a director. Doing a sitcom is a little different.

Rape is a crime against sleep and memory; it’s afterimage imprints itself like an irreversible negative from the camera obscura of dreams.

What’s the biggest compliment is if I read a review and it’s exactly what I wrote down in my diary before ever filming it. That’s really cool. That’s the biggest signifier of closing the gaps.

There’s a gap between what I want to do, what I do on camera, and what gets edited. Right? So the goal is to try and close the gaps.

Cameras aren’t guns. They can’t really hurt you.

I started in a research lab for TV cameras, then I worked at a tape duplication facility.

The one hour live debate in the West Wing that we did was one of the most exciting times for me on stage or on camera, because anything could go wrong.