I like it when I'm on the stage, but honestly, I would be very happy if I could cut it off, just enjoy my life when I wasn't performing.

I remember being in Japan when Destiny's Child put out 'Independent Women,' and women there were saying how proud they were to have their own jobs, their own independent thinking, their own goals. It made me feel so good, and I realized that one of my responsibilities was to inspire women in a deeper way.

I know you want me back. It's time to face the facts. That I'm the one that's got away. Lord knows that it would take another place, another time, another world, another life. Thank God I found the good in goodbye.

I am a woman and when I think, I must speak.

I grew up upper-class. Private school, my dad had a Jaguar. We're African-American and we work together as a family, so people assume we're like the Jacksons. But I didn't have parents using me to get out of a bad situation.

I think music is something that can, and should, be used to get you into different things because eventually what goes up must come down -- we're not going to be the Number One group in the world forever -- so you have to have something else to fall back on.

I've worn dresses from all different price ranges, and the thing that couture dresses have in common is that the fit is amazing.