When you gain weight, for every pound that you gain, it adds four pounds of stress on your knees. So if you gain five pounds, you've got 20 pounds of stress on your knees. So that's why I'm extremely careful with my portions and my workout, because I can't be overweight.

When I was growing up, I did not exercise at all. I was raised in the French Quarter in New Orleans. If I saw someone running, I would call the police because I thought they stole something on Royal Street.

I don't talk about my personal life, and I don't talk about death.

Count your blessings. You are one of a kind. There's no one in the world like you. You are amazing.

I do not want any child in America to have my childhood because it was taken away from me because I just wasn't good enough; well I am good enough now.

Stop trying to find something in food that will make you feel better. I used to have eating disorders; I'd binge and purge all the time: fried oysters, po' boys, muffulettas, beignets, coffee and doughnuts. I tried to medicate myself with food when people made fun of me or hit me with a bat in school. I'd always turn to food. Knowing what I now know, I'd turn to me.

Everyone's under pressure and you just have to learn how to deal with it. And I deal with it through prayer and staying busy.