My father worked on assembly lines in Detroit while I was growing up. Every day, I watched him do what he needed to do to support the family. But he told me, 'Life is short. Do what you want to do.'

Typically, the theme of my albums, if there is a theme, is, 'How does it feel?' And that always leads to love songs. It just does.

Chris Brown is brilliant. That cat is crazy brilliant, and I wish him the best.

As soon as you get off stage, that's the most dangerous time for a singer to kiss people because your vocal chords are receptive to any kind of germ.

I think there's no sacrifice too great for family, whether it's career, singing, whatever.

Historically, in my generation, all of my heroes and heroines have had issues and problems. We all do.

I'm picking and choosing in terms of the stress factor. If it's not fun, I'm not going to do it.