Listening to the stories told in jazz music and how those artists expressed their truths about the times and what they were dealing with is what struck me the most.

Once you see how powerful music is and how it can affect people, then you want to use it to impact the world.

I consider each performance to be an intimate conversation between me and the audience members.

I always knew I wanted to be a performance artist.

When I look back on my career, from the hard work I put in, I got everything I deserved.

When I got pregnant, I knew I wasn't anywhere in my career, that I had not arrived. I was still on my adventure, and so I said to the child in my belly, 'I am so happy for you to come, but you should know I'm still on my way, and you'll have to come with me and be in my rucksack.'

I went to a seminar early in my career on the craft of storytelling by Robert McKee. It was really life altering. There are basic principles on how to craft an engaging story and he covers them well. He's got a book out, 'Story,' that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in improve their storytelling.

I'm portraying out characters, I'm portraying femme characters, characters that are really outside of the box. I never thought I would get that opportunity to portray those characters at all, much less have a career that I have.