Oh, I am such a little piggy. Everyone is always mad at me because I eat so much. They're like, 'How are you so skinny?' I eat more than my husband!
It's kind of a lonely work, because you just have to keep your pole in the water. I always had a little routine of going into whatever room I was using at the time to write in and just staying in there till I felt like I got a bite.
I brought what I could of myself to this thing, because between Henry Warnimont and I - not a hell of a lot of difference.
I get uncomfortable when people give me presents and watch me open them. I don't have birthday parties, because the idea of a group of people singing and looking at me while I'm blowing out candles gives me hives.
The record company doesn't know what to do with me, because I'm not a Lily Allen, but I'm not really an indie artist, either. All the best artists have been in the middle.
My biggest luck was the Terry McMillan era, because what happened after the phenomenon of 'Waiting to Exhale' is that publishing woke up. They said, 'Wow. Black people do read.'
Any song I don't feel good about, I shelve. Anything you ever hear me sing, it's because I want to.
When I am made fun of in the press I just remember those days when I'd come home to find that the water had been turned off because my mother couldn't afford the bill. Suddenly, everything feels easier.
I keep thinking I should get a phone, because everyone's got one and it becomes increasingly difficult to exist in a society where everyone else has moved ahead and you haven't.
I don't really think I feel pressured to become a teen sensation because that's not really my goal in life. It's not really about being star, being popular or having lots of girls. It's really about continuing to be able to act and have fun, and do what I like to do.
I woke up one day and thought: 'I want to write a book about the history of my body.' I could justify talking about my mother because it was in her body that my body began.
