When I look half naked on stage, it's not because I'm trying to be sexy but because I am dancing and want to be mobile enough to move.

I wanted to make an album that sounded like a release of inhibitions, really getting away from the idea that you have to be anything other than in that moment.

To create and do something no one else has done before - that feeling beats anything else I've felt.

'Goldenheart' is like a modern-day Joan of Arc. Think of it like medieval times-cum-2045 or Lancelot and Guinevere in 3025. It's a new version of these battles - age-old stories for the now.

I can be a little messy and wild and carefree with my creativity as a solo artist. In a group, there's a certain structure, and everyone has a part to play, and being a solo artist, I can do as I please.

I've grown so much in the music industry. From 'GoldenHeart,' it was just about me and the music and me in this dream. With 'BlackHeart,' its more about me and who I am and what role I play in my own life and in the business.

Instagram is just something I like to do. I feel it's the best way to portray who you are.

I don't take myself too seriously.

I believe I am standing firm as a black woman in this industry in a time that it is hard as an artist period.

I had always had an affinity for series in literature, and I thought it would be really cool to incorporate what I loved about books into the story of music, to pile it together.

The black geeks of the world, we feel like we don't have a home.

I started to write my own stories, like small novels, and those novels became poems, and after poems, they became lyrics, and song came from that.

Songwriting was my own journey. I never fit in with structure in songwriting.

I did write more mainstream stuff with DK. But you could always tell the records that I wrote in contrast with everybody else's because the format was a bit different. The harmonies were used in a different type of way. Way more metaphors in the mix.

There is a thing about women that needs to be understood. We don't sit well with being put in a certain place.

I always knew who I was, but everyone else wanted to me to be their 'idea' of the 'right' artist. At times, I even believed them.

I'm not mainstream. You gotta find me.

I promised myself that I wouldn't be afraid to be who I was when I chose to do this music thing.

Hair pieces and head dresses have always been something that's been part of my culture.

I don't really feel there's rules in my everyday wear. I kind of do whatever the hell I want to do.

It's a lot of work being an indie artist, but it's worth it.

'Armor On' explains why I needed armor in the first place. Sonically, you'll hear this battle of, 'I love you, no I don't. I love you, I hate you.' That's what you'll feel. You see the story kind of fight against itself.

I've had two platinum albums. I have worked with thousands of people. But the most rewarding feeling is to see people on Twitter say, 'Do you see what Dawn and them are doing? They are number one.' It's the most rewarding feeling because of all the tears, all the bad stuff, and the people that said I couldn't do it.

I like being in charge. I like being able to control my own destiny and ideas.

I'm okay with being the oddball.

I lived in the library with my grandmother as a child. I still love the smell of books; the library card is still my friend.

There's always going to be a fight between mainstream and underground because the mainstream is a very small bubble, and the underground scene is a very small bubble, and they both see themselves as secret societies. But I never saw it that way. I always thought music was open to all things.

I really got back to my New Orleans roots - my grandfather played with Fats Domino. We had to leave after Katrina, but I feel like, spiritually, I'm back there.

A lot of 'Blackheart' was me, literally in a dark room, confessing my sins; Poe was the influence for that album. But that melancholy has a hopefulness - in every Poe story, there is always a moral at the end.

When I was growing up, there was no one. There were very few black women in tech; there were very few black women in the fashion game. We didn't have our Grace Jones - Grace Jones was before my time. We didn't really have a lot of black women in electronic and punk who were celebrated in the same levels as, say, your big mega-superstars.

It's always interesting when you're doing things yourself - getting the lighting, getting everybody together. It's exciting.

I don't wish homelessness on anyone, especially when you come from where your parents work hard.

When I was 4, I had a schedule. I was playing softball. My brother was playing football. My parents were teachers, and they'd owned businesses. We like to work hard. Work and then books. Books and then work. We just knew that we had to excel. It sounds militant, but trust me, it was fun.

I watched my parents lose everything, from a house to birth certificates. We were homeless for about six months, then we stayed in Baltimore, and my parents got jobs.

I'm not a very open person.

It doesn't bother me when I'm labeled, but it's so... limiting. It's so boxy.

I want to show that you can be just as amazing as labels and compete as a business and work as a business even though you're an artist.

'Blackheart' was the moment for me to really open up and let people into the world that is me.

There's definitely that tribal Africana thing going on in my sound. It's that marching band, second-line music, that Creole-influence in the kick, and the snare that drives everything for me. I think it's really what's separated my sound from a lot of the R&B and pop music out there.

I'm big on showing people versatility. I'm constantly trying to push myself to break barriers and the idea that we have to stay in one lane.

I come from an era where lyrics were full of imagery and metaphor, and that's all I know. I think people miss that.

I connect so much with Peter Gabriel's sound because, to me, he always had that South African vibe. His drums were always something to move to: it was almost like Calypso. I'm a big fan.

There's a fine line between artist and product. I don't think the industry purposely does it, but I think that's just the way they maneuver. You have to be careful that doesn't become your story, where you become a product, and your art is tarnished because you're just seen as a tool to make money.

My uncle is in the hall of fame for creating by hand some of the most intricate Indian Mardi Gras garb.

When you see what you really are, good or bad, there is a fearlessness to understanding your purpose.

R&B needs to see a new light. It doesn't have to be pigeonholed.

The problem with Danity Kane is everybody wanted to play everybody's role, and when you're in a group like that, that can't survive.

Everyone who knows Puff knows Puff rolls with himself. His hustle is money. That's what he does.

I got in the audition line called 'Making the Band' because I wanted to be in a band. If I didn't, I would have done 'American Idol.'

Stay humble, be fearless, and work, work, work, work, work, work.