You can't get around pain and opposition, but you can try to be joyful in the trial, and thank yourself for the trial, and thank God for the strength to get through it.

You can look at my palm and see the storm coming. Read the book of my life and see I've overcome it.

You have to create different things, either through lighting or changing the format of the songs and how you're going to sing them, and even sometimes props.

As a kid, I dreamed about being onstage.

You either learn from your experiences or go back and do the same thing, and I learned from my experiences.

You have to have a plan. Everything has to be planned. For me, I start with the title of my album, before I even start with the songs. I write down different things that I want album to say, and then the songs come from the different words.

The only person that I'm really feeling - because she has an identity of her own, even though she has listened to Mary J. Blige - is Jill Scott.