Photos: Courtesy of HBO
On wanting to change her sound, when she made 4:
"I want to sing about how much I hate myself that day, if I want to."
On thriving on antagonism:
"I used to like when people made me mad. I was like: Please piss me off before the performance."
On making music for women:
"I'm always thinking about women. And what we need to hear. It's difficult being a woman. There's so much pressure. We need that support. And we need to escape sometimes."
On gender politics:
"Women have to work much harder to make it in this world. It really pisses me off that women don't get the same opportunities as men do. Or money, for that matter. Because, let's face it: Money gives men the power to run the show. It gives men the power to define our values and what's sexy — and feminine."
On Jay-Z
"We connected on a spiritual level...It's every woman's dream to feel this way about someone."
(And then later, in footage of his birthday toast):
"You taught me how to be a woman. You taught me how to live...there's not enough I can give you."
On her miscarriage (the lyrics to the first song she wrote for her upcoming album):
"You took the life right out of me. I'm so unlucky I can't breathe."
On finding out she was pregnant with Blue:
"Being pregnant is like falling in love. You're so open."
Photo: Courtesy of HBO