It hurts when you have to smile and you don't want to smile, but the best thing to do is to smile.

Don't go a full day or night without washing your face. You have to get all the dirt and makeup out of your pores.

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.

I've been a tomboy my whole life. But then you get older, you get married, you soften up.

My God is a God who wants me to have things. He wants me to bling. He wants me to be the hottest thing on the block.

I mean, I know my heart is not clean, and your heart is not clean, and none of our urban hearts are clean. But you can be washed again.

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'.