Meshell Ndegeocello

“Not to be a Bible-thumper, but there really is nothing new under the sun.”

“Yes, violence begets more violence, but historically this has been the way of the world.”

“I'm becoming more and more apolitical - I think the most revolutionary thing you can do is just live your life and have a good time. Before they scoop you up on the street or you die.”

“I just try to tell a story with a song, and be able to try to transmit the emotion to you. That's all I'm really trying to do.”

“I think leaders are incapable of the strength that passive resistance entails.”

“My greatest influence is Jimi Hendrix, and if he's been reincarnated, or if he's looking down, sideways, or looking up, I just wanted to tell him that I love him and thank him for opening doors for me. I just wanted to make it beautiful for him.”

“It's very limiting to us as a species, the concept of better-than/less-than. It just seems to be at its end. I'm like, this all fades to black, and it's gone. It's dust. Choose carefully what you obsess about.”

“Definitely dub is in my body forever. I think I hear everything through a dub filter. Even when I play rock music, I play through a dub filter.”

“Any ideas of 'other' are complicated, and otherness is relative to personal ideas of 'normal.'”

“I love children. I'd prefer to be around children much more than adults, actually. And I like animals, too. I'm just really into beings who are at ease with themselves.”