The streets respect me because I kept it real with me. You gotta be real with yourself, and the streets recognize game.

Music makes us want to live. You don't know how many times people have told me that they'd been down and depressed and just wanted to die. But then a special song caught their ear and that helped give them renewed strength. That's the power music has.

When I`m going to do a Christmas album I had to put my mind in Christmas mode. I had to go back to being a child and remembering all of that. When I go to do a project, I'm serious about it, so I wrap my world around it, and it becomes Christmastime for me and I'm singing songs like it's Christmas day.

I like French fries; I like mashed. I love potatoes.

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

The important thing is to realize that no matter what people's opinions may be, they're only just that - people's opinions. You have to believe in your heart what you know to be true about yourself. And let that be that.

My responsibility to God is to live. That's the gift he gave me. What I do with it is up to me.