Sometimes when I am in a situation that I have never been in, I kind of pull back a little bit to observe things; it doesn't really last long though I have to. I've resigned to myself to the fact that I have to be me.

There's no way I can represent for everyone. I can't represent for all women or all big women or all black women. It's important for people not to make celebrities their source of who they should be in life. I can't take on the pressure of being perfect. Nobody is.

Sometimes I pray when I really feel like I need God to help me with something, and sometimes we just have conversations. We just kick it.

There are a lot of people who helped make Queen Latifah who she is today. I don't forget, but a lot of people do and get big heads.

When it came time to be a professional rapper, I wouldn't sign anything without reading it. There was no way I was going to have people make decisions for me or wake up one day and find that I was broke because I never bothered to read a contract.

There were musicians that influenced me, but they weren't all women. Teena Marie was a big influence because she wrote and produced her own music, which let me know that women could write and produce their own music, which was an empowering moment for me.

You have to allow your mind to create and then if you want to censor something and bring it down or point it in a different direction, then you can do it.