My mixed-race background made me a broad person, able to relate to different cultures. But any woman of colour, even a mixed colour, is seen as black in America. So that's how I regard myself.

At the end of the day, so many things that we hold so much value with, it just doesn't even mean anything. I really try to stay focused on being really positive.

When I was first learning songs, I'd have a favorite song, and I'd take the chords and twist them around. I'd learn the chords and then play them backward. That was my first experimenting with writing a song.

I feel like the majority of the fear that I had or that we have we hold from other people. They're like people that we trust; they're their fears. All of a sudden we think that they're our fears.

The smaller you strip things down, the more you depend on the songs and yourself, as opposed to arrangements.

Stevie Wonder's records introduced me to '70s soul when I was 12 or 13.

Meditation has been a big change for me in a super-positive way. I see the result and strength and clarity - even my creativity is different and more connected. It might be 10 minutes a day; it might be 20 minutes a day. But every day in this crazy world, it's a sense of peace and purpose.