Some of my writing is very subconscious, and that's definitely what happened with 'Body Language' - I looped some basic bossa nova sounds and just started singing.

I like lowriders and music from the '50s and '60s. A lot of people assumed I was Mexican.

You can consciously make a difference with music. Bob Marley is one of those few artists that everyone can say that they love. He makes you feel good. It's very real.

Juanes is one of the legendary, iconic Colombian artists. Growing up in Colombia, you can't really not have him on your radar. His songs are everywhere, and there's a statue of him. He's pretty big for Latin America, and for Colombia especially.

I'm constantly progressing. My style is changing every day.

I really love secondhand clothes. It's fun to turn them into something new.

My first relationship was from when I was about 15 to 19. My second relationship was kind of like a rebound, but also a really important part of my journey - he was very emotionally manipulative and just wanted me to be an accessory.

My dad's job was to manage apartment complexes, so when people would move out or when people would die or whatever, people left things in their apartments, he would always bring me home people's collection of music that they left behind. I was excited because I didn't really have money to go to the CD store all the time.

I've always experimented with my look. Growing up, I thought it was so weird that people dressed alike and all bought the same things.

The constant pressure to be the perfect, ideal female - there's no such thing.

It's really not easy to be an artist. It's not easy to put yourself out there and be honest. I'm making things that are really happening to me, and it's not easy to share that with the world.

You're always taught that the world is so competitive. You're taught that it's not very likely for you to become successful and that odds are you're going to be a struggling artist for the rest of your life.

That's the best kind of music: the stuff that happens based off intuition.

I've always been someone who, without wanting to or without trying to, I draw attention to myself sometimes in negative ways. It made me sharp, and it made me quick.

I love a good old-school reggaeton song.

I was always into music and stuff, so I would always make songs since I was little.

I'm Colombian-American. My father wanted me to have American citizenship, but he wanted to raise me in Colombia.

I'm naturally sort of a sad person, and that comes out in my music, but when I realized how many people were listening to it... I wanted to be a little more conscious about what I was putting out and what people were going to be taking from it.

When I'm making a song, I try not to think about audience or genres. It's free-flowing. Natural.

Being able to incorporate my language into songs is really cool. It's really cool to see that people are susceptible to it. It helps with writing a lot to turn off one language and then go to another.

Diplo kept asking me who styled my 'What They Say' video. I was like, 'No, that's just my clothes!'

We're all born into whatever citizenship, circumstances, or class we happen to be born into. Immigrants and so many people in the working class work so hard every day for nickels and pennies and scraps to just barely get by and then realize that this precious life has been completely drained out of us.

I'm just inspired by life and, growing up, I listened to all types of different sounds, genres, and areas of music.

Music is your way to change the frequencies of everything around you and move your own body, move your whole environment.

N.E.R.D. was also from - not too far from where I was from growing up. For a lot of people who make music, that was a huge influence in teen years.

If my life is a movie - in the movie, there's always the bad part. There's also the parts where you're down and out, and there are parts where everything's amazing.

Every time I go out to do shows, it just becomes a little bit more real and a little bit more full, so I'm excited just to see it hit its next level.

No matter where you are, what point in your life you're at, it's not the end.

I don't like to see people using their power over others, trying to hurt people who are weak or poor or people with darker skin or anyone who doesn't have as much privilege. It makes me so angry. I want to fight for people. I want to be able to make some kind of difference in the world.

I've done my own videos, I do my own styling, so I feel like I've just always been a visual artist... I was one of those kids who wanted to make my own clothes and take pictures of everything. Everything inspired me, and everything felt like art around me.

I feel like fashion is about being innovative and being able to turn something into something else, making it cool, and making it your own.

I grew up being very different and being ready to fight people. I wanted to stand up for myself, and I wanted to not let anyone think they know me based on appearances, so I was always just fighting back with people.

I'm a big Gorillaz fan.

It's difficult as an artist sometimes. There's a lot of pressure when it's your first album. You want to make something that's meaningful and timeless, not something that's trendy.

When I was little, I went through a lot of phases, like any girl.

It's really natural for me to write bilingually.

I never really wanted to be a singer. I always preferred to be behind the camera.

I made music just for myself.

I wasn't into social media at all, but when I decided I was going to put out my own music, I said, 'Okay, I'm just going to post it.' And that's when it started its rounds on the Internet, and people started to take an interest in me.

California feels like Colombia but with less threats. I don't have to be constantly looking over my shoulder.

Colombian culture has had a huge influence on me and taught me a different way of looking at things - I was always different from the people I went to school with, and I learned to embrace that.

I used to love to look at cover art for vinyls.

A lot of people don't give Virginia credit. Pharrell, Missy Elliott - a lot of people come from here.

I think everybody needs to be more empathetic.

When I got my MacBook, I started playing around with Garageband a lot. It was just a creative outlet. I put everything into it. I would skip all my classes just to be making my songs. Stuff like that made me feel good.

As a musician, you are all the music that you absorb into your mind; that just subconsciously connects.

I just like stuff that's raw, itself, real and genuine. I think that's the way art should be. That's the kind of stuff that people can connect to more.

I just know what I want for myself.

When you're an artist, you're working, literally, for the sole purpose of art, and when people discredit you, it's probably the most disrespectful thing you can do.

There's no particular method or course of action that I take in order to decide who I'm going to work with besides feeling complete and total respect and admiration for that artist.