As long as I can stay creative and used my mind, it can be 20 hours a day. I sleep four hours, so I've got 20 hours.

I'm going to become a real professional actress.

My success, I feel like, is credit - credit for a good job. I haven't even gotten a Grammy, yet I've already decided I want an Emmy.

I don't really start writing until later in the night. I'm a night owl.

I tend to sing opera and showtunes in the shower. I don't know why, but when I get in the shower I turn into this big fat opera lady.

I want to create a management company for people like me so that they don't have to give up the way they present [themselves], they just have someone to help them keep their business afloat.

My music teacher was like, "Ester, you need to pay attention in class." I'm like, "No miss lady, 'cause I can sing." I didn't want anybody to change the way I sung. I learned by gospel CDs and by watching my momma sing; I didn't need this teacher to tell me. I wish I had, because then I would have learned how to play the damn piano or something. I would have a couple of more things under my belt if I wasn't so hard-headed.