No, I don't have a feminine side. I've never been in touch with it. And the day I get in touch with my feminine side is the day I retire.

A few people know me, and the few people that do know me only know me because they dig my stuff.

I've been very lucky that I've never had cellulite. My body was always firm.

I made my first white women friends in college; they loved me and were loyal to our friendship, but I understood, as they did, that they were white women and that whiteness mattered.

Who sees the human face correctly: the photographer, the mirror, or the painter?

I'm very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That's my cultural historical background, my genetic makeup, but it's not all of who I am nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.

Now, as a nation, we don't promise equal outcomes, but we were founded on the idea everybody should have an equal opportunity to succeed. No matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you can make it. That's an essential promise of America. Where you start should not determine where you end up.

You can tell my mood by my makeup. When I'm depressed, it's really dark. Then I'll do super-dumb happy makeup. Like, I'll do one eye electric blue and one smoky brown, and you won't even figure it out until you're talking to me - then you're like, 'Whoa!'

Everyone was surprised then that our music got such a foothold because they said 'You're so fresh-faced and wholesome.'

No, it's not comfortable; I hate watching myself. You don't like when you hear your voice on your voicemail; imagine having to see yourself 30 feet wide and 30 feet big.

I can't disguise myself with a wig and dark glasses - the wheelchair gives me away.

It's an interesting but useless bit of information that every single character in 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit' wears a wig, and many of them wears a prosthetic - false ears, feet, hands. In my case, nose.