I love being able to be political without any political affiliation.

I think it's absolutely a blessing when you just know what your purpose is and your destiny. I don't think it's a curse at all.

I'm able to laugh now, because I've gone through a lot of mental and physical therapy to heal over the years, my music's been wonderful for me. But I was a shell of my former self at one point. I was not myself. To be fair, I was about 19, so ... I went to Catholic school and all this crazy stuff happened, and I was going, 'Oh, is this just the way adults are?' I was very naive.

I don't care what people think about me, I care what they think about themselves.

I hope to see women thriving and happy, loving what they're doing, and being in control and powerful of what they create. I guess what I would say is, as much as we all love the fashion and the makeup and the glamour, this isn't a beauty pageant. It's about the heart and the drive and the work. Of course, it's lovely to dress up and compliment one another and feel good - but that shouldn't be the very first thing.

I talk about myself in the third person all the time. I don't live my life in the way someone like you does. I live my life completely serving only my work and my fans.

Where I come from it was really unheard of to be at a party and someone says, 'What kind of music do you make?', and you say, 'Pop music.' You may as well have 'I'm not cool' stamped on your forehead.