At first people thought I was really arrogant and a snob about music because I'm so intense about my production and sound, and because they knew I didn't like new music so much.

I identify more with women than with men. I guess I have a strong feminine side.

My mother always told me to embrace both sides of my background. And she also taught me one very useful thing when I was going to first grade. She said, "You're Bahamian and African-American on one side, and Russian-Jewish on the other. You're no more one than the other, and it's beautiful that you have all this. It makes your life all the more rich. But society will see you only as black."

There's nothing more that we love than having a close, personal, open relationship, and I believe that's what God wants.

Today, people are more into the glitz and the glamour of everything. We don't even read the inside of records anymore.

My mother's side of the family is from the Bahamas, and I spent time there on and off when I was growing up. It's the place where I feel at peace.

I'm so happy. I am able to see the world just by making music, just by doing the thing that I loved doing when I was five years old.