Music should be your escape.

I know that some people shy away from what I say. They think it is too blunt, but when you don't give people that, they feel like you are being fake and you're not telling the truth. So it's like, you want me to tell the truth, but when I do, it's too much for you.

Rule number one in negotiating anything with Missy is never try and run me over. Never push me, because I am a very strong woman. I'm nice, but I'm very strong. When it gets down gritty, I can get grittier. Never, ever underestimate me.

I think it's being innovative and very creative to stay away from flat-out sampling somebody else's record. To me, that doesn't show too much of your creative side unless you take a little piece and add it, almost like spice on a chicken.

When you are creating to the magnitude that I try to create, your brain is like a computer, and you need to refresh.

I want kids of this generation to see that everything is cool, that there's some kind of unity in hip-hop. We all found something that's really important to us, and music is all we've really got.

I felt like, 'How do I fit in?' But then I never fit in. The whole time, I've never fit in.

Women are not always taken as seriously as we should be, so sometimes we have to put our foot down.

Maybe I should find myself one of those sexy British soccer stars. David Beckham is hot. But I've got a hell of a lot of competition.

The person I eventually find will have to like me and my style.

You get people who rap about stuff that they don't do all day long. Half those guys, you hear them on the radio, and then you meet them, and you're like, 'Wow. They're so sweet.'

I feel like, O.K., if I can make it as a singer, then let me try rapping. If I can make it as a rapper, then let me try writing. All right? If I make it as a rap singer and writer, then why not try to produce? I don't feel limited in any way.

Seeing my mother become very strong and very independent had a huge impact on me.

I don't think Puffy knows what he did for hip-hop. Because he intertwined hip-hop and R&B so that people weren't intimidated.

Now everybody's sampling.

My imagination is so far out there already. People couldn't imagine what goes on in my brain.

Before Missy, there was no comparison to what Missy was doing.

When I'm in the studio, I like to be in there by myself because if I'm in the mike room, and I look out and see people talking, or they're not nodding their head or rocking to the music, it makes me feel like it don't sound good, or I'll be scared to really open up vocally because I might mess up, and they might be in there laughing.

No, I'm a flirtatious person; I'll flirt all day long, but it really is hard to get into that when I'm so into the music, and I'm in the studio all day long and all night sometimes. That's not an exaggeration.

I was very disturbed to find that a few people were angry at my weight loss.

Music is a male-dominated field. Women are not always taken as seriously as we should be, so sometimes we have to put our foot down.

I try not to be cruel to people. I know there's a karma, and I'm constantly thinking of my blessings. I live and die by being a Baptist. If I can't go to church on a Sunday, I'll get a tape by the Clark Sisters and slide it in for the day.

It's just that back then we didn't know that was considered being a coproducer. I would sit on the side and say what I wanted musically, but at the time we thought if you aren't the one playing it, you don't get the credit. Now you'll start seeing my name listed as producer.

I talked about my father being abusive to my mother - people have never heard me talk about anything like that. That brings people a little bit more personal with Missy.

I'd stand on the side of the road when I was just a little girl singing on trash cans. People would roll down their windows saying, 'Isn't she cute'. I had a vivid imagination. I always pretended it was some big stage.

Everybody is doing the same old thing.

We're told that to be fly, you gotta have a fly car, the rims on your wheels, the fly jewels, and that to work a regular job and make legal money is uncool.

I always said if a man would have done half the records that I've done, we would know about it. But we don't know all the records I've done for other artists.

I go out and date people, but I don't have that relationship, where you know, I'm like Jennifer Lopez, like I'm going to get married.

Me personally, I don't ask too much, but I do ask Him to continue to bless me successfully, financially, and just to keep me humble.

He was like, 'I want to get in the studio with you.' Who turns down Pharrell?

When you think of Missy, you can't say, 'Missy reminded me of someone else.' There was no Missy comparison before.

If you believe a black cat is bad luck, people think you're crazy, but plenty of times, if I see a black cat down my street, I turn around and go the other way. Even if I'm late. I'll be late for the airport and be in a limo, and if I see a black cat, I'll be like, 'Sir, you have to turn around and go down the next street.'

I remember having mice in the house and my father taking some newspaper and beating me because mice was running on me while I was asleep.

I never drank water. Always soda. I didn't use to like water, but I've had to train myself to drink it.

If I wanted to do 'The Missing Files of Missy Elliott,' I have probably six albums just sitting there.

If you got talent, you just have to do you.

And basically I always said when I was little that if I ever became successful or a celebrity, I would buy her this huge house and she would never have to work anymore. And I've done that. So I feel happy about doing that.

When I first started out in the music industry and went to Elektra Records, I didn't go to be an artist, I went to get a record label started. And they said in order to have a label deal, I had to be an artist - so that's what I did.

My mother helped me to be who I am: to have strength and not to let people run all over me and yet to be humble; to realise that all of this that I have today could be gone.

I wasn't born a superstar.

I don't want to be oh-so-brag-about-it, but 'The Rain' is hot.

I love my mother. She's my first love. She has been through a lot and is a sole survivor.

A lot of people don't know a lot of records that I've written or produced, so that's a highlight for me as a woman.

I got more shy as I got older and realized people could be laughing at me or judging me.

I mean, when it's time to rhyme rhyme, I can get down for mine.

Breaking news: there is only one Missy.

When it comes to size, most people don't want to see themselves looking bigger than what they are.

I'm blessed to be living this dream of writing and singing, but that's not the real dream I had. The real dream was to make enough money to take care of all the pain and suffering that my mother has been through.

I used to put all my doll babies on my bed with their hands up and I would do full shows for them. I'd even do the screaming and clapping. I was bugging to be a singer.