I'm from a singing family, but they're not professional singers, only gospel - my grandfather was a minister. I started to sing the music that was out then because my mother used to play it all the time. It was the end of the '50s, the beginning of the '60s. There was Frankie Lyman and the Teenagers, Etta James... We used to sit outside on the stoop and sing. We even used to put our radios and record players outside.

I've never been damaged or hurt by press. It's just that I think it's unfair to use your name in media.

I don't like to have too many makeup artists around, so I always like to do my own.

If I'm with a man I'm soft and buttery.

You can have a lot of New York and still see what's going on in the rest of the world, I think - like in China.

I listen to most everything that's out there because I need to stay aware of what's happening in the industry.

I think a responsibility comes with notoriety, but I never think of it as power. It's more like something you hold, like grains of sand. If you keep your hand closed, you can have it and possess it, but if you open your fingers in any way, you can lose it just as quickly.