As a person, I'm just trying to be better than I was yesterday and continue to elevate.

I'd rather have quality over quantity. It's about perfecting each song and making sure it's what you want to do. And then even with what I share it's all very strategic.

I go to my mom's house and she'll make me do the dishes or clean up.

Some people, they make these assumptions before they even listen to the music.

To live your truth and sing your truth, that defines success.

I always feel like we focus too much on image and the flashiness of what it means to be an artist.

I never really thought of myself as someone who was gifted.

We live in an era of social media. We care more about looks, popularity and followers than about real music. And I wanted to get away from that.

Sometimes it's all about hype, and I didn't want hype.

I want women to really feel how honest and vulnerable I am and to understand that they are not alone and that these are all human emotions.

I just love music, and that's what I want people to see and respect.

I really just wanted it to be about the music, and get away from, 'Who is she with?' and 'What is she wearing?'

Whether you know who I am or not, you don't really know who I am.

It's a great thing to hear people putting me up to this standard and putting me on this pedestal and expecting greatness from me, but at the end of the day, I'm just trying to be a better me as an artist musically.

It's not a popularity contest to me. It should always be about the music.

I'm always thinking about Prince when I make my music and how genre-less he was and just how versatile and amazing he was on the stage. I'm so inspired by him.

I wanted people to just accept the music for what it is without any judgement and being anonymous was the best way to do that.

People have always tried to imitate, but at the end of the day, no one can do me better than I can do me, you know?

I've been writing since I was five years old. I used to write poetry, and I loved to rhyme.

As a black woman, I've always had to work hard to earn my respect as a musician - and as a young woman, too. As a writer, in certain sessions or certain rooms people think, 'Who's kid is this? Who's this little girl?' I've had to prove myself.

As a young woman, I experienced high school and heartbreak, and the music I started to write was a little bit more poetic, and more inspired by spoken word. The real raw emotional things that sit in the back of our minds, that you were afraid to say? That's how I started to write my music. And that's how 'H.E.R. Volume One' came about.

I think people often tend to listen to music with their eyes and not their ears, and I just wanted my work to shine, and to be able to convey my message without imagery taking away from that.

I've learned a lot about myself through my music and the way people perceive it, and the goal is for the success not to change me.

I'm a sneaker girl, but I like to make comfort fancy.

I've always been kind of a loner.

People do things on Instagram and put on a front and try to live a life that they may not really want to live, or don't truly believe in. And that's the life that they portray. That's not the real them. We all have to be more aware of what is that's really happening inside. Are we really standing for what we believe in?

Throughout my teenage years or whatever, I've been so uncomfortable, or I've made mistakes and I've felt like I'm the only one who has done that.

Good things take time.

I like to pair clothes or accessories that wouldn't usually go together.

I learned anything can go wrong on tour, still, you have to put on the best show you can.

Before anybody knew who I was, I was just working on what I love and having fun with it, and I'm sticking with that - because, ultimately, that's what people want to see.

I guess 16, 17, 18, that whole period was a dark time for me. I guess it was a hormonal thing, going through all those changes as a young woman, learning who you are and being comfortable with yourself, and also, which goes along with that, boys. It was definitely an unhappy, 'Who am I?' period. 'Who am I gonna be?'

I wanted it to be about the music, so maintaining that is kind of difficult. But it's something I found made the most sense because it's about the music at the end of the day. That's what I'm most passionate about.

As an artist, you're very sensitive about your art. And you feel like, 'Am I doing the right thing? Am I making the right music?'

All of my music is based off my life experiences.

I've become a voice for young women who are growing up and uncomfortable being vulnerable, uncomfortable with changes, heartbreak - and becoming jaded.

When you're growing up as a young woman, you develop all of these insecurities, and then there's boys and all of that stuff on top of that.

I used to tell people when I was 15 or 16 that I'd never be that girl who goes through this, gets her heart broken, falls for this guy, but I ended up being her.

People at school knew I sang and that this was what I was gonna do, but I was pretty private and low-key.

A lot of women need to know that they don't have to conform, they don't have to take no for an answer.

You can't avoid heartbreak, you can't avoid a lot of things. You have to go through them in order to become the person you're going to be.

I love BTS, their music is good, but they always support me.

Giving, making an impact on people is something I definitely got from my mother.

I'm really about this women empowerment thing.

I don't know if I have a favorite part of being an artist. I do love being onstage and performing with my band. I also love rehearsing with them and creating the show, that's always a fun part. But there's also nothing like being in the studio and being able to get back to myself and get back to my feelings.

Living my truth was very hard - I felt vulnerable.

People are gonna listen to the music whether or not I reveal myself.

Music was all around me from the time I came into the world.

The studio is the place for me to really confront my feelings and get it all out. I love being in that space and creating, doing what I love, making art.

When I was a little bitty kid, I was listening to the stuff my parents were listening to. My mom was a huge Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige fan. My dad had a cover band that I sang with, and he loved Parliament, Prince, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton, the blues, James Brown.