My father worked on assembly lines in Detroit while I was growing up. Every day, I watched him do what he needed to do to support the family. But he told me, 'Life is short. Do what you want to do.'

I need my career. That's what validates me.

I think there's no sacrifice too great for family, whether it's career, singing, whatever.

I'm used to getting up at 7, getting breakfast, getting the kids off to school, and doing the mommy thing and the wife thing and the daughter thing.

When the poet is in love, he is incapable of writing poetry on love. He has to write when he remembers that he was in love.

I don't remember deciding to become a writer. You decide to become a dentist or a postman. For me, writing is like being gay. You finally admit that this is who you are, you come out and hope that no one runs away.

Hip-hop is just bombarded with a lot of materialistic stuff. When a group like us with more creativity comes out, I think it will make some kind of change.

I never really had that father figure to look up to. I think that's the reason I'm so ambitious. I felt like I wasn't appreciated as a child so I wanted to prove my worth as an adult, as an actor.