"I never put her kid in it. I ain't over there telling her I heard things like Shaniece [Evelyn's daughter] is a build-a-whore."

“Jay hit me up like, 'Record done.' I'm going to be honest, when I hear news like that, I shed tears, I shed good emotions. I get to the crib, [Jay] played me the record, I went crazy. I'm hearing Beyoncé, I'm hearing Jigga, then he's like, 'Yo, we're dropping this tomorrow night.' I'm like Jay, I gotta mix the record, I gotta put my sprinkles, I gotta clear the sample, I gotta put a plan together... He's like, 'I know you ain't trippin.'"

“It’s so bittersweet, I think. I really trust Shonda Rhimes. I trust her in feeling like this is the end of the season. Our writers are so brilliant and I really do trust them, but it’s gonna be hard because we love our show. We love our cast and our crew and we’ve loved this journey, but we’re also really proud of what we’ve created."

"She been waiting, I'm glad she got a job back. You got to be pretty excited to go do a whole photoshoot, all this, that. I'm glad, I'm happy for you, Im glad you happy."

"I feel really happy; pregnancy has been good to me. I’m in love, I'm looking forward to just sharing this next level of life. My whole life has been about working and being in the girl group and being on stage and being an actress, but now I get to really enjoy a bigger purpose, which is motherhood, so I'm really excited."

"I just feel like in our culture, it's so taboo for a guy to show their bodies but it's OK for a woman to do it. I just kinda want to break that. I think I have a nice body and I think it's art and I just think that it should be celebrated like they celebrate women's bodies. So you know, I could be a guy and be gay and be Black and be artistic and be artistic in a nude fashion shoot in the same way that anybody else could."

"If I am having dinner with a friend, and a man comes up and asks to take a picture, most times I will always say, 'Of course!’ But then that person posts the picture on social media as if I am dating that person, and suddenly I am dating, like, 100 people. It seems silly... but I think that is frustrating [about] social media."

“I would obviously never want to offend anyone. I used an amazing photographer and a team of people. I was really tan when we shot the images, and it might be that the contrast was off. But I showed the image to many people, to many in the business. No one brought that to our attention. No one mentioned it.”

“We hang out a little bit, like how I hang out, I don't know who you hang out.”

“It is in your hands to stop all of the killing and the shooting where it might be. You cannot say ‘Black Lives Matter,’ and then kill yourselves. Because you know we’ve mattered long before it was said, but the way we show that we matter, the way that we show all of the various people of color matter is by loving each other and doing something about it. Not just talking about it, not just waiting to see the media and press come when there’s a horrible thing.”

“I sincerely believe we have the capacity to actually make this country great. There are enough people, there are enough believers out there, there are enough intelligent, empathetic souls out there that want good for the whole. I don’t know if it’ll happen in my lifetime, but I believe in time the pendulum will swing in the right direction.”