I've got a checklist of things I want - including a Brit, a Grammy, an Oscar and a white poodle. Sometimes it gets lonely, and I want a baby too! I'm ticking things off the list.

I only watch TV when I go to hotels.

To me, music has to be about freedom. It's the most important thing in my life.

Life is good. Or at least, it's always interesting.

Who says soul has only one colour?

I'm supposed to be taking time off. But I'm still writing and I have this Gap advert lined up.

If you remember one thing from talking to me, remember this: I am just a girl who makes noises - and I'm incredibly lucky that people happen to like those noises.

It's like, 'You're not allowed to change. That's not fair. We like you like this.' But I don't. So let me expand and express myself.

It's ok to be sassy, but I'll never be trashy, it's ok to be nasty, but you got to keep it classy now

It would just be nice if everybody would be nice.

If I could be a doctor and save lives I would, but I can't so I sing songs.

To live only for pleasure is to die while living.

When you fall in love, your heart blooms like a flower and your soul transforms and transcends like a butterfly

Being insulted again and again it doesn't mean that you haven't self respect. It means that you value someone most.

New York City, city of exaggerations. Place of Herculean ascensions and perilous falls.

In God’s third day we should reveal God to the world around us.

I'm not trying to change the face of hip-hop music. I'm trying to make my records and always take the next step for me.

A Muslim has five duties towards another Muslim; to return a salutation, visit the sick, follow funerals, accept an invitation and say 'God have mercy on you' when one sneezes.

I recall my mother asking in about 1946 what I was and I replied proudly that I was a professor. A decade later she repeated her question and I repeated my answer. "No promotion?" was her comment.

I have often felt a motion of love to leave some hints in writing of my experience of the goodness of God, and now, in the thirty-sixth year of my age, I begin this work.

Government has a legitimate sphere of operation. The problem arises when that sphere continually expands, encompassing areas where government lacks legitimacy.