I often compare singing to lovemaking because there's so many similarities.

I think that's the role of an artist, right? To touch someone and make us stretch out just a little bit more.

In an abusive relationship - we'll talk about men and women - women are often restrained, by words or out of fear, from leaving. They will tolerate abuse up to and including being put to death.

I just kind of tried to stay true to myself.

I just love music. I love all kinds of music, and I was exposed to it, me and my siblings, from the time we were in utero.

Once I started singing, I realized it was a language I'd forgotten I could speak.

To be up on stage and interacting with musicians, that was a huge epiphany for me.

Hey, maybe I can sing locally and earn a couple of bucks.

I've never been the type of singer that can sing in heels and the gown and all this stuff, because I can't get to where I want to go while I'm in that getup.

You have to be willing to look a certain way, and hold your body a certain way, until you get to where you want to go - I'm talking about musically, now.

There's a certain place you want to get to, and in order to do that, you have to be vulnerable.

The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials.

Sometimes things reveal themselves to you a little bit. I think it was Joan Didion that said, "We write to find out what we're thinking." And sometimes that happens.

I worked in fashion for ten years, and like anyone in the fashion industry, even if you leave, you never leave fashion behind.

Marriage! Nothing else demands so much of a man

The danger, I find, is that you can become too formulaic, like some commissioned portrait painters who develop a methodology.

It’s the mind itself which shapes the body.

You have a lot of young people who still feel somewhat marginalized, even if they do vote for Hillary Clinton.

I think I was obsessed with the culture of riding. I got sick of having to date guys who rode motorcycles for me to be on them.

There are positively no mental, physical or moral attainments too lofty for the Negro to accomplish if granted a fair and equal opportunity.

If you have a juggernaut, you can make change. I'm all for that. If we could force people to always be connected when you play the game, and then have that be acceptable, awesome.