Erykah Badu projects don't even sound like Erykah Badu projects. I don't even have one album that sounds like another one of my albums.

I remember when I signed with Kedar Entertainment through Universal Records. It was my first record deal and it's the one I still have now. At that time, there had been a couple of opportunities I was almost given, but at the last minute the giver came back and told me it couldn't happen.

I believed in myself, and I've always worked very, very hard as an artist, and I am an artist in every sense of the word.

Following your heart also means eliminating the things that no longer evolve you.

Art is the absence of fear.

I don't want to think too much about how I'm carving and what I'm carving - you are just carving away the excess clay and there's a piece underneath there. And it's kind of like getting out of the way. Maybe that's what the commonality is: It's getting out of the way so that the art can speak.

I take the same approach in all genres of art, across the board. It's intuitive.