Sometimes we depersonalize people who we don't agree with or who we see as targets for hatred. If you think of anything as having a mother, that's going to change everything. All of us have mothers and came from a womb. Buddha says you can't hate anything you understand.

I've always hid behind the music despite the fact that I have a huge personality. I'm thrilled that the music is bigger than me and will outlive and outlast me. It frees me up to take risks.

People feel that you'll never be able to recreate the birthplace of a song that has, at its core, the hardship of a people. Unless you underwent the respect that it takes to appropriate those songs through a ritual, then perhaps you should think twice before simply picking them up.

Opera contains music that reflects a culture of poetry and aesthetic. Spirituals are no different. What separates a spiritual for me is that I also happen to love Jesus. When I'm approaching these songs, I'm not approaching them like Mozart. I see my faith and the struggle of my ancestors and of a people seeking freedom beside what these songs are going to be in terms of their arrangement and delivery.

Belief is a choice. Not everyone is going to love Jesus. I'm not asking them to. I'm not asking them to come on the same spectrum as me. No matter where you fall on the faith spectrum, the spiritual can instill a sense of hope in you that's undeniable. The spiritual doesn't ask you to believe any one thing. It just opens you up.

The idea of the nightclub and gospel house music is interesting to me; I can't wait to hit that circuit! The Bible says, "Where two or more are gathered in my name, there am I also." When you sing, dance, or open yourself up to being fed by a performer or edified in the experience, there is this possibility that you're going to leave better than you got there.

I don't need to live my art and almost die to understand my heroines. I want to love my sons, live quietly, eat good food, have meaningful friendships in and out of work and have a very large wine collection.