I named my album Year of the Gentleman. Just looking at how the essence of what it is to be a gentleman is very much lacking nowadays. Someone said to me that chivalry is dead, and I hated to have to agree, but it's true.

Fear is a healthy part of success.

There wasn't a lot of R&B cats doing songs at 120 beats per minute before 'Closer,' which I take full credit and responsibility for. That's all good, but it was an experiment. You experiment with something, if it goes good, cool, but you never forget where you come from and R&B is where I come from.

There is no pain like the first time you get your heart broken.

What I definitely learnt from Michael Jackson is that simple is almost always better. As a songwriter, as an artist period.

I have my diehard R&B fans on one side of the spectrum and my diehard pop and dance fans on the other side of the spectrum.

An idea that will translate really well musically should work visually. I try to write music that you can feel if you were to close your eyes you can see what I am talking about.