I went to Jamaica for six months, and in Jamaica there was a lot of stillness.

From the first time someone says, Who do you think you are? we learn how to repress.

When I create music, the feeling that you get... I get first. You [the listener] have a delayed experience with the feeling I initially get when I have a creative insight. Not just the voice, but all the creativity - the production, the idea, the concept, the music involved. There is a high. There is an emotional experience that happens when everything comes together... I made music as consistently as I did, especially back in the day, because it made me feel so good... When everything is on, it's a wonderful feeling.

It's funny - more people talk about my 'babe-dom' now than they did before I had a child. Whatever. I guess I'm a role model in hot pants now. That's cool!

Everybody has a choice. I am not here to shove my light down everybody's throat. For those who don't want it, I have nothing to defend.

I play my enemies like a game of chess

When you're young and everything dramatic is exciting, you start to believe that hype that, in order to be an artist, you have to suffer. I've graduated from that school.