Don't be afraid to fly,spread your wings open up the door. So much more outside don't be afraid to fly.

If you believe within your soul, just hold on tight and don't let go! You can make it, make it happen.

I started writing poetry when I was six. I had this teacher who didn't believe the poems I'd bring in were mine because they were dark and sad. But I wrote about what I experienced in my childhood.

Father, thanks for reaching out and lovingly,saying that you've always been proud of me,I needed to feel that so desperately,you're always alive inside of me.

Stay triumphant, keep on living. Stay on your toes, get off the ropes. Don't let 'em ever count you out.

My fans have made all my career moments special for me. They are the ones that have gotten me through every single thing -- good times and bad, they are who I go to and lean on. I am very thankful for that.

My father identified as a black man. No one asked him because he was clearly black. But people always ask me. If we were together, people would look at us in a really strange way. It sucked. As a little girl I had blond hair and they'd look at me, look at him, and be disgusted.

Pregnancy was probably the best and the hardest thing I'll ever go through. I know for a lot of women, it can be wonderful and relatively easy.

I can change it, I can't make you stay if you need to believe. Won't you now spread your wings and take flight and go on to the dawn.

You really have to look inside yourself and find your own inner strength, and say, 'I'm proud of what I am and who I am, and I'm just going to be myself.

I'm not a subscriber to walking into large corporate entities that I have to walk into and be waiting in line, because then I have to stand there.

I do all of my own stunts in videos. The Jet Ski scenes, the fight scenes, all of them!

I try not to be a jerk. I really do. I try to be nice and cordial.

I've seen other artists put out movies that went straight to DVD, and no one cared. Maybe their own fans bought the thing, and that was fine.

We have to go through certain things in order to appreciate life and learn lessons.

I'm very hard on myself and I have too many issues.

I don't go out much. I'm also not promiscuous. If I went out with everyone the press said I did, I'd never have time to write or sing.

I look around and see the things I have, and I remember not having them. That is one thing that keeps me grounded. I'm definitely the same person I was... I never lose me, I never lose the real person.

I'm proud of what I am and who I am, and I'm just going to be myself.

You really just want to know that somebody loves you for you. Sometimes you feel like an ATM machine with a wig on it.