“Children go with whatever makes them feel good - like if that's the color green or orange, they do that with their clothes. As I've grown older, everything reversed. My music, my personality - onstage those things became my colors.”

“Everything is about balance. You can't work, work, work, work without any play.”

“Honestly, I don't believe in menswear. I focus on what pieces are most timeless, transcendent, match my lifestyle, remain remarkable, and command intriguing attention across the room at an art gallery.”

“I always carry my classic black-and-white tux and custom-made George Esquivel saddle shoes.”

“I always think about the next generation and creating a different blueprint for them. That's my goal: to let them know there's another way.”

“I believe it's time that women truly owned their superpowers and used their beauty and strength to change the world around them.”

“I believe that imagination inspires nations. It's something that I live by.”

“I enjoy how women dressed in the 1920s with the shimmering jewels and rich feathers.”

“I feel myself becoming the fearless person I have dreamt of being. Have I arrived? No. But I'm constantly evolving and challenging myself to be unafraid to make mistakes.”

“I have a great body, I really do. But I want to be taken seriously as an artist, and wearing anything that shows it off will be a distraction from the music. That's how my signature uniform, my tuxedo, came about. It's classic and timeless. You'll see me in black, white, and a pop of color on my lips. That pop adds a little magic.”

“I have not lost any of my crazy, fearless, raw, soulful, eclectic side and I plan on continuing to tell universal stories in an unforgettable way.”

“I just think my own ambition would not allow me to sit on the gifts that my creator had given me. And so that's when I realized that I could actually go away.”

“I know what I like; if you go to my closet, I have at least four of everything.”

“I listen to Prince on my iPad. And I use a Chords & Scales app to warm up before performing.”

“I'll refer to my music in color, like 'This song needs to be bright red.'”

“I'm a believer that the more I'm giving, the happier I am, and the more beautiful my exterior will be.”

“I'm attracted to things that scare me, like 'Psycho,' my favorite Hitchcock movie.”

“I'm inspired by the words: 'electrifying', 'epic', 'minimalistic', 'transcendent', 'timeless' and 'rock n' roll.'”

“It's a big universe. To stay in one tiny place is doing a disservice to yourself.”

“It's unfortunate that a lot of people think African-American female artists are monolithically R&B this-or-that, don't have to do anything by default.”

“Once you find what you like, it's like it worked yesterday, it works today, it'll work tomorrow.”

“One of my core values is to help redefine what it means to be a strong and beautiful woman in the music and fashion worlds and to empower the wonderful things that make us unique.”

“Some songs you get. Some songs you may not. And I think that's the beauty of art: to question and to ask, to understand the deeper meaning after two or three or four listenings.”

“We don't all have to take the same coordinates to get to the same destination. Being a young African American female artist, I want to open doors for young black girls.”

“When I got into the music industry, I wasn't focused on being the most famous artist or even getting a major record deal. It was just to make music on my own terms or create my own image, do my own hair, do my own makeup.”

“You are only as beautiful as the many beautiful things you do for others without expectation.”