Grace Hightower

I'll give you my routine, my morning ritual: I get up, I do a bit of stretching, and then after showering and everything, I have a half cup of warm lemon water. I've been doing that forever. I love it. It just brightens everything for me.

If I go anywhere, and I don't have my coffee, I don't drink coffee. When I travel, I carry it with me - and I ask hotels to grind it and brew it for me if I can't have it in my room myself. I'm dedicated that way.

You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

You make your first album, you make some money, and you feel like you still have to show face, like 'I still go to the projects.' I'm like, why? Your job is to inspire people from your neighborhood to get out. You grew up there. What makes you think it's so cool?