India Arie

I've been trying to arrive at a person who is self-defined and able to make my own mistakes rather than having other people make them for me.

For me, the healing process starts with graciousness and forgiveness.

You wash your hands when you shake a bunch of hands. You have to wash your energy when you're around people. It's hard for me to say self-care is washing, although I think it is. So I made music for self-care. That's what it's for.

I had been on what seemed to be a hiatus to the outside world, but I was actually working very hard on my health, my emotional health, and my business.

What I love about Stevie Wonder is the way he makes people feel. He's one of the best examples of how music can heal.

I want my music to be a contribution, and I want the people who love me on Earth and in Heaven to be proud of who I am, and I want to be proud of myself, and I don't want to look back and say, 'Oh God, why did I say that?'

What I love about Christmas music is it stays around every year and comes back.

Neo-soul is really less about a sound than it is about a look, in my opinion.

I'm kind of like a folk singer mixed with soul, but I feel like if you really are a lover of hip-hop music, make the beat banging as possible and then put the message in so that people get the honey with the medicine.

I was born in love with music. My mother is a singer. Many of my aunts and uncles on my mother's side are musical. My grandparents sang and played blues piano. It's literally in my blood.

In this era, soul is not a sound or a color: it's an intention.

With 'Acoustic Soul,' I saw my music as sparse. But I didn't do that because I was making a commitment to be commercial. That's what made 'Acoustic Soul' so difficult to produce. It took 2 1/2 years because I couldn't figure out what I wanted and still be commercial.