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.

Your life can become the background for the art you create.

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

There are certain things we come into this world having to defeat. And for me, and I would not be surprised if a lot of women feel this same way, it's this thing of not being 100 percent comfortable with myself.

If we took the time to learn more about different places and people, perhaps we would have more empathy for each other.

I know people who've gone to jail. It don't mean you stop loving them! They deservin' love just as much in there, and maybe they needin' it more.

Not because I'm trying to be fabulous, but I love those big crazy Jackie O shades.