My God is a God who wants me to have things. He wants me to bling. He wants me to be the hottest thing on the block.

I believe there are certain things that God uses to get us out of a bad situation, and I believe music was one of the things he used for me.

God comes first - if I don't love him, I can't love anybody, and if I can't love me I can't love nobody.

No one intimidates me because I'm not trying to do what you do, because I can't do what you do. I can only do what Mary J. Blige can do, so that relaxes me right there, and it gets me out of the competition and that whole thing.

There are people out there who want to provoke me and bring back the old Mary but I'm not giving them the satisfaction.

It hurts when you have to smile and you don't want to smile, but the best thing to do is to smile.