It's OK to assert yourself. Obviously, as a woman, I do experience the consequence of asserting yourself - you're not supposed to assert yourself.

When you dishonor the the utter glory and majesty of black people, you lie. Your heart lies to you and you let it

I grew up in a situation of extreme abuse, but there was no chance to talk about it, so music became the escape if you like.

There's a weighing kind of overemphasis on sexuality, which disempowers music generally, because it silences all the other voices; it makes music a very powerless force for changing the world.

I think in the first place hearing the music inside of you is very soothing, very comforting. For me there always been, if you like, a spiritual connection between myself and music.

I only feel better because people aren't being so abusive to me about my weight.

I have always had a good functioning in my artistic life, but I had problems mostly in my private life, I got very angry with my boyfriends and stuff...I would probably have good reasons to be angry but the volume would be too high, just getting to some level of wounding that perhaps was not appropriate to the actual offence committed.