Jill Scott

“Most of the time, particularly with this record, 'The Light of the Sun,' I really just been standing in front of a microphone and blacking out musically, you know. I'd come back a couple hours later and there's six songs from beginning to end, you know? I don't know what I'm going to say. I don't know how I'm going to say it.”

“I just think fashion is about enjoying yourself and being comfortable in your skin and allowing you to be you - all the way live.”

“When I sing, I have to live in that moment, so my audience can feel that. That is my reason for doing art.”

“At my aunt's funeral, I promised myself that I wouldn't be bound by the belief that I'm supposed to stay in anything - whether it's a relationship, a job, a house, or a circumstance - if it makes me miserable. She gave me the courage to find my own happiness.”

“I think the first time I really heard poetry was in the schoolyard. Just the little limericks that kids say when they're jumping rope and playing games. I think that's the first time I heard rhyming words - I don't know if I'd call that the definitive poetry, but that's when I heard rhyming words said and not necessarily sung.”

“All man-made religions are limited. I go my own way.”

“There are black marriages that are still going strong 40 years later. You hear so many myths that there aren't any people making it, but there are. As long as there are some, there's hope.”

“I did an internship at the Ardent theatre company in Philly after dropping out of college. I was earning $165 a week building sets and cleaning the toilets. Cleaning toilets is a good way of getting in touch with your creativity. That's when you find out if you got anything going on in your head.”

“Africa doesn't leap on you immediately; it seeps slowly, and it's incredibly important to be respectful and humble there.”

“You owe it to yourself to live beautifully. And I am.”

“I never expected the White House to be warm, and the artwork on the walls was extraordinary. I am a fan of the Louvre, but being there it was almost just as good.”

“'Fringe' is one of my favorite television shows, from its inception. I absolutely love all of the science fiction of it, the mystery of it, and the science in it.”

“When I was 12, I wrote a list of things to do before I died. 'Own a Picasso' was one of those things.”