I like Marvel because characters look like me and women don't have roles that make them look too sexual.

I started modeling before '1992,' and I had already done Calvin Klein and Target and Gap and Diesel, Reebok, so I had been modeling for a little bit.

I'm not aloof at all.

I just want to purify my body, purify my mind, and make good music and keep living my life.

I think that if I was a white male people would get me more. I do. I think that. I think a lot of things would make more sense if I was a guy and if I had people supporting me and saying this is the greatest thing in the world.

I don't even know how I became cool.

That whole Wavy Spice, '90s thing, it wasn't who I was or what I saw myself doing in the future.

I'm not trendy and I'm not popular.

I'm from Harlem.

I don't think many people have met someone like me. I don't think the world gets to see too many women like me, and I enjoy being that woman.

When I started out rapping, I became very frightened by the idea that people were trying to pigeonhole me. That's usually what happens to most female rappers. They fit in a box and there's a prototype or person they're compared to.

I believe in God, Nature, Magic, and the spiritual healing of all holistic properties.

I'd been suffering all of my life. I think comedians and artists, we do that. We know how to be the life of the party and enjoy exuberance outside of pain.

I don't have much in life but my work is what makes me alive.

I'm kind of like a musical Bill Cunningham.

Music gives me a focused purpose. It saves my life every day.

I actually didn't own any North Face until I was 18 and the first one I had was a gorgeous Blue Extreme and I loved it.

There's no money in music. I know that. I think the whole world should know that.

Alexandria Ocasio? I think she's dope.

I'm loud, I'm super comedic about my life, and I always try to look for partners who are the same about theirs, and with that I just try to always find a partner who I can have a laugh with who completely understands me before I begin to share anything.

I'm very 'nothing-bothers-me,' laissez faire. Everything works for me.

I was a happy-go-lucky gothic girl who had an optimistic spirit cos I was suffering a lot at home.

I try not to be overly nostalgic, and I don't use nostalgia to be kitschy.

Men should understand that women are creatures of nature, and that they are to be respected as nature, and that they are interchangeable and complex like nature.

Music has empowered me through poverty, abuse, and mental-health issues.

I was just a queer theater kid from New York City.

It took me a long time to get to where I am, but I am here and it is everywhere I want to be. A place where both my artistic merit and hard work meet. A day where I can say, 'Yeah, I'm a musician. A good one.'

Music is a beauty pageant. When I go put myself out there, I'm going to compete.

I truly have a lot of faith in the universe even when I'm down, I'm always good.

I don't have a make-up artist and I don't need a stylist.

I like to honor my West African and Taino ancestry, I consider it sacred and divine.

My definition of God is the highest supreme feeling of beauty and light and happiness.

I think that brown people are attracted to rock music because it speaks on the spectrum of pain that brown people are predisposed to.

Black people created punk - the band Death was way before The Ramones. Same with Bad Brains. If you think about it, the wool has been pulled over our eyes.

People look down on teen moms and young mothers when they are the most gracious and significant women on this Earth. They sacrifice their freedom and their lives to give life.

Everybody wants to act like I ain't a big deal when I am. I'm one of the most successful, relevant and influential rappers of my generation.

Black people created rock music, it's a fact. Black people created bluegrass and rock and roll way before Elvis Presley and The Beatles.

My ancestors had to keep their customs secret for fear of death or persecution, so it's common to be secretive and discreet about Regla de Ocha. But it's my family's spirituality, so I don't want to keep it secret.

I'm a Puerto Rican woman whose family has roots in Regla de Ocha, also known as Santeria.

I'm 100 percent in control of my artistry, music, and finances.

Everything really came together on '1992.' That isn't to dismiss my earlier works - they were great - but when I focused myself on hip-hop everything just clicked.

I model a lot and I'm very fortunate and blessed to be able to do as many partnerships I do for an underground musician such as myself.

I'm undereducated in politics, and I don't like to involve myself in them because they have dark spaces that I do not want to touch.

I literally have my hand in every aspect of the art world that you could imagine. That's what I've always done.

Growing up, I loved Boy George, George Michael, Annie Lennox, Queen, Freddie Mercury, Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross.

Queer culture was introduced to me at a very early age. It was introduced to me with a semi-positive facet because no one in my family is remotely homophobic or closed-minded.

Oh, I never fit in anywhere. I'm a loner. I don't even have many friends.

To me, the music industry doesn't exist, it's like the devil, it doesn't exist if you don't believe in it.

Growing up in the '90s was the coolest thing to me.

The principles of punk-rock culture, of self-expression and DIY culture, that really spoke to me.