Monáe: "Embrace what makes you unique, even if it makes others uncomfortable."

Monáe: "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."

Monáe: "I'm about women's empowerment. I'm about agency. I'm about being in control of your narrative and your body."

Monáe: "I have not lost any of my crazy, fearless, raw, soulful, eclectic side and I plan on continuing to tell universal stories in an unforgettable way."

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

Monáe: "I feel myself becoming the fearless person I have dreamt of being. Have I arrived? No. But I'm constantly evolving and challenging myself to be unafraid to make mistakes."

Monáe: "I always think about the next generation and creating a different blueprint for them. That's my goal: to let them know there's another way."

Monáe: "It's a big universe. To stay in one tiny place is doing a disservice to yourself."

Monáe: "We don't all have to take the same coordinates to get to the same destination. Being a young African American female artist, I want to open doors for young black girls."

Monáe: "Once you find what you like, it's like it worked yesterday, it works today, it'll work tomorrow."

Monáe: "One of my core values is to help redefine what it means to be a strong and beautiful woman in the music and fashion worlds and to empower the wonderful things that make us unique."

Monáe: "I love the mystery behind things."

Monáe: "I spend a lot of time in the future, But to help the future, sometimes you got to go back to the past, and sometimes you got to stay in the present."

Monáe: "I have worn a tuxedo, but I have never covered up for respectability politics or to shame other women."

Monáe: "I love men. But evil men? I will not tolerate that. You don't deserve to be in my presence. If you're going to rule this world, I am not going to contribute anymore until you change it."

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

Monáe: "Honestly, I don't believe in menswear. I focus on what pieces are most timeless, transcendent, match my lifestyle, remain remarkable, and command intriguing attention across the room at an art gallery."

Monáe: "I'm a believer that the more I'm giving, the happier I am, and the more beautiful my exterior will be."

Monáe: "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."

Monáe: "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."

Monáe: "When I first started in this industry, my goal was to be some best friend. The sidekick. I thought that would be an accomplishment."

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

Monáe: "It's unfortunate that a lot of people think African-American female artists are monolithically R&B this-or-that, don't have to do anything by default."