I was a very poor young black boy in New Orleans, just a face without a name, swimming in a sea of poverty trying to survive.

It's not an easy journey, to get to a place where you forgive people. But it is such a powerful place, because it frees you.

I always feed myself positivity. I turn to anything that teaches good, that teaches strength, and that you can make it. I swear to you that those kinds of thoughts come alive in your body and in anything you touch because your energy goes into everything you touch, everything you share and everything you speak. So, it's most important that you surround yourself with positivity always, and have it in your mind at all times.

Children love their mothers. Especially with a boy child and his mother, there's a bond that's unbreakable.

As far as the illusion of the fame, yes, I can definitely appreciate it.

You know, people don't want their intelligence insulted. They don't want to be preached to. They don't want to be degraded. All they want to do is sit, laugh, have a good time, love one another, forget about what's going on in the world, and find something out so they can be useful in this life. Do this and you have common sense.

What rings true is that everything we grow through in life will work out for our good.