Quotes from Jill Scott

My earliest influence was Quincy Jones. I thought 'The Wiz' soundtrack was the most amazing thing I'd ever heard. It was my first record and you had Michael Jackson, Ted Ross, Nipsey Russell and Diana Ross on it. I even took it to show and tell in third grade!

I think every individual has his or her own power, and it's a matter of working, taking time and defining what that power is.

One of the things I love about Africa is the amount of dignity and respect and humility you see all the time. You don't realise how often you're disrespected until you are surrounded by respect.

I am a huge Prince fan. It's a very rare thing for him to have people open for him. It's been the Time and Sheila E., and that's about it. Building a relationship with him has been like a dream come true. I've been looking for a mentor, and I feel like I have that in him.

One day, I just got up to read a poem and started singing. I looked around - the reaction was great. And I said, 'Oh, boy. I like this.'

I see myself being a great-grandmother at my great-grandson's graduation from a school that has my name on it.

My grandmother told me: 'Never be in debt to anyone or anything.' Which is probably why I've never been financially extravagant - I still go to Costco. I'm always conscious of living within my means.

I was backstage at the House of Blues in L.A where I was about to perform, and Stevie Wonder and Prince turned up at my dressing room together! Stevie started beat boxing and Prince started singing one of my songs, all of a sudden it was like I was in a cypher with these incredible artists.

I've done a lot of fighting in my time, and I'm down to do some more. I don't want to, but you know, there's just certain things that you can't sit down and take.

There's a certain level of realness in Philly. You know, just - people are people. You know, it doesn't matter who you are or who you think you are, you're just a person in Philly.

I could hear music playing in the background of works by certain authors, like Poe and Shakespeare. And I discovered Nikki Giovanni when I was in eighth grade. Her writing has a musical energy with pulse and rhythm, almost like jazz or hip-hop.

Find new treasures in yourself. Love doesn't die. Love is unyielding. It's going to come back. The more you love and appreciate yourself, the more prepared you are when the real thing shows up.

I just want to continue to grow, as an actor, and dig. Hopefully, one day, I'll lose myself in a role. My only worry about that is that I just want to be able to come back home. I don't want to get lost forever. That scares me.

I would say for every successful black woman in America or in the world, really, it's difficult to be the head of the household, financially. It is for the man in your life. It can be very hard for them. And there's a delicate balance. I'm not quite sure I know what that balance is just yet.

I'm a world-class people watcher. I like to watch people's body movements, their expressions. It says so much about them.

African people worldwide are known to be welcoming and open-minded.

I was once making a burger for myself at my boyfriend's house and a lyric started pouring out and I had to catch it, so I ran to another room to write it down, but then the kitchen caught fire. His cabinets were charred, and he was furious. But it was worth it for a song.

A lot of the girls I grew up with were pregnant by the time they were 16. I just was lucky.

That's what I enjoy most about my music, that it heals in its own time and makes us look at ourselves in its own time.

My intention is to make music that you can enjoy at all times.

I've been around the world and I've had bras made in different places, and each time I'm experiencing the same troubles: the painful shoulders, the underwire cutting into my flesh.

Everybody's looking for love, and you want to love somebody and be loved in return.

I'm a secret interior decorator. There's a mural on my dining room wall of the railroad tracks at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. I love having my hometown with me out here in California.

I always wanted to be a renaissance woman, do as many things as I possibly can and hopefully do them well or don't do them at all.