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" Nobody looked like me when I was growing up. None of the kids were as big as me, or as serious as me, or listened to the same music. "

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" Nina Simone sacrificed so much to be as bold as she was about being black and about being female in an era where that could have cost her life. "

" I know that I pray a lot, and I take time for myself. "

" For the first ten years of my career, I felt suffocated. People constantly stood over me while I tried to create. And in 2009, I hit rock bottom. I couldn't find myself because I was looking to be defined by the music industry or by being number one on the Billboard charts. "

" You wash your hands when you shake a bunch of hands. You have to wash your energy when you're around people. It's hard for me to say self-care is washing, although I think it is. So I made music for self-care. That's what it's for. "

" In hindsight, I feel like I made the right decision to choose production that would get played on black radio. "

" The subconscious doesn't distinguish sarcasm and jokes. It just accepts what it hears. That's the power of words. "

" Between '06 and '09, I dealt with pain by eating. And I was like, 'Oh, crap, eating makes you gain weight!' "

" I am on an album with theater icon Billy Porter called the 'Soul of Richard Rodgers.' Our duet is called 'Carefully Taught.' "

" It's OK to wear white in the wintertime. Do what you want. "

" To spread love, healing, peace, and joy is my mission in life - and so I speak up. "

" I've never said anything that I didn't want to say on a record, ever. "

" I wouldn't be back in my 20s for anything. "

" It's cool to hear my songs on the radio. But for me, that's just a way to get more people to have the option of choosing my music. "

" I know the things I say go out of my own mouth and into my own ears. "

" I like Brandy a lot. She's a vocal prodigy. "

" When someone is themselves through their music, it's soul music. James Taylor is soul music to me 'cause it's just him talking about him. It doesn't have anything to do with black or growing up in the church; it's where it comes from. It's just soul music. "

" Just like the air you breathe or the water you drink, music shapes you. The trouble is, most people don't use it to spread love and healing. But I think music can make a social contribution if you're responsible with it. "

" Everybody has a spiritual body. Everybody has a physical body, and so your spiritual body is the stuff that holds all of your emotions like your body holds your organs, your food, your muscles, your water. Your spiritual body holds your emotional state and your mental state. "

" What I love about Stevie Wonder is the way he makes people feel. He's one of the best examples of how music can heal. "

" It's important to have a place where you can recharge. Everybody's is different, but I do think it should entail quiet because it needs to be where you hear your spirit most clearly. For me, that's the prayer room in my apartment. And since my home is 700 square feet, I mean the coat closet near the front door. "

" For me, the healing process starts with graciousness and forgiveness. "

" At 16, I started really loving country music, and Collin Raye just had the most amazing ballads! "

" In this era, soul is not a sound or a color: it's an intention. "

" Could a person really make a social contribution through music consciously? I mean, beyond making a person happy to hear the song and more making a social contribution consciously through your music? For me, Stevie Wonder is the paragon of that. And I didn't want to be Stevie Wonder, but I did want to do what he does. "

" Joe Sample was one of my heroes. I met him at the Curacao Jazz festival, and I fanned out like he was the Beatles! "

" So many people have been abused. It's not rare; it's a very common human experience, and we survive. "

" Our food choices show up on our body. "

" I write about my experiences, so a lot of times, I do write about people. "

" 'Open Door' was a world music project and bilingual. It was in Hebrew and English, and it's great. I do think it's really beautiful. But it's very emotional and very dark - in a good way. "

" I do believe in prophecy. "