I went to a high school for the performing arts and I lived and breathed music. It kept me focused; it kept me sane.

Embrace your past, but live for now.

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.

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.

Take all the rules away. How can we live if we don't change?

The best thing is looking back and realizing how good life is. If you don't take the time to think about it and analyze it, you'll never realize all the dots that are connected.

I think it's healthy for a person to be nervous. It means you care - that you work hard and want to give a great performance. You just have to channel that nervous energy into the show.