Quotes from Dawn Richard

I couldn't do a record without knowing I'll translate it into something visual.

I do not have a history in set design. I have a history in art. I draw. But I learned set design when I couldn't afford to have a team and I didn't want to look like I was indie. I wanted to give fans the visual.

I just want to be a storyteller, and I think the way to do that is by your lyrics, by your visuals, by your choreography, by your dance. It's imperative as an artist.

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

People want to peg you as alternative R&B when they hear soul or see the color of your skin. It's comfortable when people see artists of color or artists that come from a different country to put that brand on us. It's just not as linear as that.

I wake up every day in a different headspace, so on any given day, my hairstyle will change.

Dreams rise like the sun and set like the sun: One minute, it is high and bright; the next minute, you might lose it.

I would describe my personal style as putting Twiggy and Yoko Ono together. It is hobo with no rules.

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

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

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.

Originally, I was set on going to Hawaii Pacific University. We visited the campus in Hawaii. I was gonna be a Rainbow Warrior. I was gonna play softball. I was gonna major in marine biology. Everything was set. Then my dad was like, 'So you're not gonna do music? If you do go to Hawaii, there's no studios there, baby girl.'

My music speaks of warriors. It speaks of women being kings and this sense of pride of being more, even though you have less.

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

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.

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

Anything that creates fear, I want to conquer it.

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.

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

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

'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 want to get up and celebrate something - and why not celebrate being a woman?

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.

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