I had no idea what awaited me when I took a job with CBS Records, and it was a total surprise to find I had a gift and an ear for music.
There's many different genres, and when you see R&B and pop and house, as well as electronic, come together, that's the reality of what music is.
If anybody is excited about my music, that's all I care about. I care about people who are excited about new music.
There's something in music that fascinates me - how it communicates emotion so immediately. That's something I wanted in my paintings.
I feel like the reason people feel like they know me is because I'm giving you myself in the music. There's where the connection comes from; you can't Twitter that.
In the end, the sign of Aretha Franklin's artistry is that she always leaves her mark - first, on the music, then on us.
We asserted ourselves as a music community, and showed legislators that music is positive. Especially if you've sold 300 million records worldwide and pay taxes.
When I was younger, I was fascinated by David Bowie, for example. he had created an entire myth around himself. It was as important as his music.
Besides music and charity, fashion is one of my interests that has been growing over the past few years. I think it goes so hand in hand, music and fashion.
Miami is a really special place for me, particularly in the U.S. It was one of the first places in the country to really embrace dance music, and I've been going there for many, many years.
Muslim leaders should ask themselves what exactly their relationship is to a political movement that encourages young men to kill and maim on religious grounds.
My husband, Nick Chiles and I wrote a number of relationship books together, and what we found was that women were thirsty to hear directly from men.
I don't like my men to be too ornate. I like them to stand back and let their women shine, and they should really wear the pants in the relationship.
My worldview, my philosophy, my attitudes, my relationships, my parenting, my marriage - everything has been transformed by my relationship with Christ.
If you can't protect yourself with talk, you won't be alive to protect yourself with guns.
The only way you can be happy is if you be completely yourself. You have to be you. Don't be what you think you should be.
The only person you need to be credible to is yourself. When you stand in front of the mirror and nobody is watching, are you happy with yourself?
The eyes of the Armenians speak long before the lips move and long after they cease to.
When times get tough, at some point, people instinctively know they need to lighten up in order to get through it.
I contend that not only can you laugh at adversity, but it is essential to do so if you are to deal with setbacks without defeat.
Now, a recent study from cardiologists at the University of Maryland, has shown that laughter may have a beneficial effect on the heart.
