Kelis

There's a difference between a pop star and an artist. Pop stars have to be perfect all the time; an artist is allowed, on occasion, to suck. And I put myself in that category because I sometimes suck. I'm not trying to please the masses. It's not going to happen, so I don't try.

Being the ideal of a strong woman means utilizing all the things that God gives you. People are always saying to me, 'You're a strong female, so why are you wearing a bikini on the cover of that magazine?' Being a strong woman is misconstrued to be something evil and ugly.

There's a point where you think, 'What else will I do if I don't do music?' It becomes your identity when it never should have been. But food ignited a fire in me, and I came right back to music because it no longer felt like a job. It was a really powerful thing for me.

My dad, being a jingle writer, and my mom, being a jingle singer, they hooked me up with some people when I was a kid that worked with children's jingle singing groups. I used to sing jingles as a kid.

At the 2012 Olympics, there was a nutritionist in the food hall telling us, 'Eat that. And eat that.' After winning my gold, I went to McDonald's for chicken nuggets and a strawberry milkshake, but that was just for the hell of it. I don't feel hungry after a match, to be honest.