When I want to push myself and do intense workouts, I do that, but I'm not going to do it because anybody thinks I should look a certain way. It's really more about how I feel and about being healthy.

I don't have to take a trip around the world or be on a yacht in the Mediterranean to have happiness. I can find it in the little things, like looking out into my backyard and seeing deer in the fields.

I don't have to really be in the 60s. Every time I hail a cab in New York, and they pass me by and pick up the white person, then I get a dose of it. Or when they don't want to take you to Harlem. I grew up with that.

So often, you don't get that opportunity. You only go over everything once and, the next thing you know, you're on set.

There was always music in our home. My mom and my dad loved music. I remember when we were kids we would have these great parties at the house with congas and bongos and African drums, and it was amazing. It wasn't until years later that I found out that they were actually Black Panther meetings.

Roxanne Shanté was kind of the first female to really come out and get respected by dudes, because she went at dudes real hard and battled them and freestyled a lot, and really came off the head a lot.

Church was a requirement, there was no choice in the matter, so was vacation bible school. Gospel has been in me since I was a kid.