Quotes from Janelle Monae

I wouldn't be as comfortable with who I am if it had not been for Prince. I mean, my label 'Wondaland' would not exist without 'Paisley Park' coming before us.

I don't even know at what age I started, because it's always been there. Performing... creating... it's in my DNA.

Children go with whatever makes them feel good - like if that's the color green or orange, they do that with their clothes. As I've grown older, everything reversed. My music, my personality - onstage those things became my colors.

Donald Trump is trying to build a wall. I'm trying to burn walls down and build more bridges.

I listen to Prince on my iPad. And I use a Chords & Scales app to warm up before performing.

People in my family and camp who grew up listening to rap music love 'We Are Young.' I've heard it play at weddings. I've heard it in graduation parties. It's a big idea and big song.

I believe that imagination inspires nations. It's something that I live by.

People in my family and camp who grew up listening to rap music love 'We Are Young.' I've heard it play at weddings. I've heard it in graduation parties. It's a big idea and big song.

I believe that imagination inspires nations. It's something that I live by.

I believe it's time that women truly owned their superpowers and used their beauty and strength to change the world around them.

Some songs you get. Some songs you may not. And I think that's the beauty of art: to question and to ask, to understand the deeper meaning after two or three or four listenings.

I won't sit here and say I've never had a pimple, but I try to have a really great diet, you know, lots of vegetables and fish. And I think stress plays a huge part too.

When I got into the music industry, I wasn't focused on being the most famous artist or even getting a major record deal. It was just to make music on my own terms or create my own image, do my own hair, do my own makeup.

There are months when I'm on a plane every day!

I know what I like; if you go to my closet, I have at least four of everything.

I don't do a lot of collaborations that I don't believe in. Actually, I don't do any collaborations that I don't believe in.

I have a great body, I really do. But I want to be taken seriously as an artist, and wearing anything that shows it off will be a distraction from the music. That's how my signature uniform, my tuxedo, came about. It's classic and timeless. You'll see me in black, white, and a pop of color on my lips. That pop adds a little magic.

I've been very blessed to have worked with two incredible directors - Barry Jenkins on 'Moonlight' and Ted Melfi on 'Hidden Figures' - and it was a collaborative effort in shaping my characters, Teresa and Mary.

My grandmother was the matriarch. If you didn't have a place to stay, if you needed food, if you were just coming out of jail or rehab, you went to her. Watching her in our family and our wider community was what inspired me and still does.

I won't sit here and say I've never had a pimple, but I try to have a really great diet, you know, lots of vegetables and fish. And I think stress plays a huge part too.

I'm attracted to things that scare me, like 'Psycho,' my favorite Hitchcock movie.

I always carry my classic black-and-white tux and custom-made George Esquivel saddle shoes.

I just think my own ambition would not allow me to sit on the gifts that my creator had given me. And so that's when I realized that I could actually go away.

You are only as beautiful as the many beautiful things you do for others without expectation.