Quotes from Solange Knowles

I have so many friends who are designers of color.

I still stand behind the stuff I did early on, but I was on a record label, and I didn't have a lot of creative control. Another side of that is just being young and having bad taste. There was plenty of that, too.

It's so sad, actually, how teachers and parents tell their kids, 'You're never gonna be anything.'

I really enjoy my privacy and being able to walk my son to school every morning and pick him up every afternoon.

I think all artists have a different story to tell, and no story is the same.

There are a lot of times when people are diplomatic about things, and I'm not that type. I'm not afraid to say exactly what I mean.

My parents constantly tried to talk me out of being an artist. They had gone through the whole journey with my sister and just wanted me to have a normal teenage life.

Every teenage artist out there is mostly talking about boys, and I think there's so much more to being a teenager than just boys.

Mainstream media tends to showcase a very specific kind of Mardi Gras, but my experience of Mardi Gras is very different; it's very cultural.

For me, I always have looked at 'indie' as a term of 'independence.' Never associated a sonic gesture with that in the same way that pop music has always meant 'popular' to me; you know, it didn't define a sound.

Self-love is really a foundation for everything, and however you practice or express that is so, so important.

The one thing I'm really excited about is that the Saint Heron shop is not grounded in just fashion and clothing. We have connected with artists and artisans in every landscape.

People who live in L.A. don't like to leave their homes because they have so much space. They have the nice kitchens and a cook and a pool. When you live in L.A., there is a sense of isolation in terms of raising a family.

I feel like I was 30 when I was 17, and I decided to get married and have a baby.

If a piece makes you look good and makes it easier to get dressed, it wins.

The Fela Kuti Queens - the band members and wives of the late African musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti - are my fashion icons.

If I have on a bright red lip, you'll rarely ever catch me with eyeshadow on. It's one or the other for me - pick one feature for the day and really focus on that.

Whether it be a red eyeliner or a graphic line on the crease of my lids, I'm more attracted to the ideas of something interesting than being 'pretty.'

I've let go of being a super perfectionist on every single note and wanting the pitch to be absolutely perfect all of the time. I grew up watching the best of the best.

Just going through a marriage and a divorce - which I essentially did by 21 - will give you an insane amount of perspective on life.

I grew up seeing my sister in the studio. I would go to recording sessions and take notes.

So much of your identity in junior high is built on who you're with. You see the world through the lens of how you identify and have been identified at that time.

Major labels act as banks in terms of how they produce and release your album. No major label is really good or bad; they just 100 per cent operate as a business, which makes sense... no hard feelings.

I'd rather be on the cast of 'Love & Hip-Hop' than 'Project Runway.'