Passion has always been important to me. That won't change. What changes in a woman's perspective. I mean, I have two kids now. I'm a single parent balancing motherhood and my career. That changes the equation.

There's one more thing I want to say. It's a touchy subject. Black beauty. Black sensuality. We live in a culture where the beauty of black people isn't always as celebrated as other types. I'd like to help change that if I can!

When you're a girl, passion can dominate the equation, but as you grow up relationships evolve. Mad passion can grab you at first, but it can't last forever.

I used all that doubt as fuel for my own music, fuel for my drive to succeed.

The time was ripe for Flower. The vibe was right.

In some cases I feel like they haven't appreciated enough that growing up doesn't mean boring and old and not full of life. I like to talk about that also.

I'll put candles all over the room, then light then, and get to it. I call it my 'vibe in a bag.'

Flower was a good metaphor for growth. The song is obviously about sexual responsibility, so that was the main metaphor. Also, it's like knowing who someone has been and remembering and appreciating that, but really appreciating what they are now even more.

Maybe with your emotions and your feelings, someone else can say it in a different way than you would, which brings new life to the way you might sing it.

Eventually you can get into the nuts and bolts of reality: nurturing, caring, and getting along.

I always make this joke that I know you were expecting to see the big skirts and the hoops. But that was a long time ago. Artists aren't always seen as real people. If you start out as a teenager, sometimes people want to keep you locked as that. But I'm a woman now.

The music business is very hard on women over 22. You really have to prove yourself every time you make a record. Are you as vibrant as you used to be? Are you as sexy? So I really want to prove that a woman in her 30s can be all those things and more.

If I've learned anything in this business, it's that you have to be fearless.

Passion has always been important to me. That won't change. What changes in a woman's perspective. I mean, I have two kids now. I'm a single parent balancing motherhood and my career. That changes the equation.

Right now I'm single. Single, and loving it.

I wanted to do Playboy to get across the same ideas I'm singing and writing about these days. It's all about proving that a woman can defy stereotypes.

Don't wait on approval, validation and likes from others - always give yourself the highest of approval ratings and work from there. Hold your head up and be fabulous no matter what!

My mother keeps things in perspective for me. She makes me realize that the acting I do and love is no more important than what one of my brothers does-he works in a shoe repair shop. If my career ever tapers off, I'll go to college.

An unexpected benefit of my career in biochemistry has been travel.

I'm sure once my career's over, when I look back when I'm older, I can maybe appreciate it a little bit more.

In Hungary, acting is a career for which one fits himself as earnestly as one studies for a degree in medicine, law, or philosophy.

I have been driven demented in my career.

The blues is something separate from what I do. They connect at certain spots, but blues is different. I wouldn't put it in with what my career has been. That would be a whole separate wing.

I wanted to be an actress. In college I was a serious feminist and very political. I was determined to get one thing out of my career and that was respect. I didn't want money. I didn't care about fame.

It could be my downfall, but I don't think it is - Hollywood is run on perception, and if you stray off the path of what you want to do with your career, it's suicide.

Those who joined us for selfish personal reasons, for a career or other motives will be the ones to leave.

Warren Beatty took an interest in my career at one point.

I knew an actor's career goes up and down and back up again. Your standing in this business can't be your whole identity; otherwise, you're doomed.

The biggest break in my career was getting into the Beatles in 1962. The second biggest break since then is getting out of them.

Sometimes you get caught up in what's going on around you. The reality is that you are just a regular person. At some point, the career will be over, the bright lights turn off. That can come back to haunt you if you're not just a regular guy.

The truth is, it's not a great career move to create a readership and then, in effect, abandon them.

I grew up wanting to make movies, and along the way I suddenly found that I had a career doing comedy.

Music is the career I'm lucky enough to get paid for, but I have other desires and passions.

I think to just single out a highlight of Elvis's career is pretty much impossible. As far as being a fan of his, a lifetime fan, there were just too many highlights.

Clearly, society has a tremendous stake in insisting on a woman's natural fitness for the career of mother: the alternatives are all too expensive.

I have probably purchased fifty 'hot tips' in my career, maybe even more. When I put them all together, I know I am a net loser.

I've spent my career trying to help people without connections understand what's going on so that they have a chance of getting a fair shake from the connected and the powerful.

If I had my career to play over, one thing I'd do differently is swing more. Those 1,200 walks I got, nobody remembers them.

Superstar was made so early in my career I had nothing to do with it at all. The first time I saw it was the opening screening.

I found in my whole career the best thing that can happen to you is that you hear what people want.

They see a work ethic in both of us. But, they also see that my husband is more in control of his future, and I am more reliant on other sources for my career.

I have always been intrigued with singing and I actually started my career in musical comedies.

This is largely the methodology I've used throughout my career - that is, starting with a question as to what might be the properties of a set of compounds that could be invented which were unusual and unpredictable. Many times I've felt a bit like Columbus setting sail.

Although I was not aware of it at the time, the experience of growing up during the Great Depression was to have a profound impact on my intellectual and professional career.

You have people who can't act and they get all these parts. Paris Hilton falls into her own category. She's made a career out of it.

I am a writer. I could not afford to take 15 months off from my writing career to play detective.

I have never forgotten my days as an Eagle Scout. I didn't know it at the time, but what really came out of my Scouting was learning how to lead and serve the community. It has come in handy in my career in government.

Actors are an insecure breed. It's hard to have your career depend upon other people's opinions of what you do.

It sucks to be the runner-up because I've been the runner-up for a long time in my career. I would get so close and then lose a huge movie and sometimes it's one kid who beats you out for three different movies. It's so frustrating at the time, but what's so great is the lesson you take from that, which is, 'I've got to get better.'