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

It's up to us to choose whether we win or lose...and I choose to win.

I used to think I was ugly. I thought I looked like a camel. A person who doesn't love themselves, they will see anything that pops up on their face. I've seen squirrels, I've seen a bird, and I've seen all kinds of animals on my face. But that is the result of self-hate. I've learned to say: 'You know what? I am a beautiful black woman'.

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.

When I was a kid, I needed to sing because it makes me feel good about myself. It makes me feel good, period.

Everything is scary if you look at it. So you just got to live.

I didn't never have to go to a therapist. I just always put it in a song and you heard me.