I don't want to be owned by a corporation and obliged to make a certain type of album. I want to be free.

I think my daughters have a pretty healthy self-awareness but I can't speak on their behalf.

When you go to Africa, and you see children, they're usually barefoot, dirty and in rags, and they'd love to go to school.

There are so many things that we could do to change the world in so many aspects. There are people working in nonprofit organizations, tackling the issues that we so desperately need to face, while governments fail so appallingly.

Churches, depending on their policy, can do fantastic work with people in the community.

In the States, the HIV transmission from mother to child is almost completely preventable - the only mothers who really do transmit it are the ones who don't come in for care. If a mother in the United States or in Europe or in the UK comes to care and gets her medicines, she will have an HIV negative baby. Most people don't know that.

Music is a great vehicle for communications, and I have a certain platform. I have an opportunity and I have to take it.