I grew up in a very nice house in Houston, went to private school all my life and I've never even been to the 'hood. Not that there's anything wrong with the 'hood.

I'm over being a pop star. I don't wanna be a hot girl. I wanna be iconic. And I feel like I've accomplished a lot. I feel like I'm highly respected, which is more important than any award or any amount of records. And I feel like there comes a point when being a pop star is not enough.

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.

That's why I called it Dangerously In Love. It's basically all of the steps in a relationship from when you first meet a guy to realizing you're interested to dancing with him the first night to thinking that you're in love to realizing that you're now a little open to making love to breaking up to having to love yourself after the breakup. All of that. A celebration of love.

I know I'm stronger in the songs than I really am. Sometimes I need to hear it myself. We all need to hear those empowering songs to remind us.

I don't like to gamble, but if there's one thing I'm willing to bet on, it's myself.

My fans kept asking where they could get clothes like Destiny's Child's, so it was only natural for us to do a clothing line.