Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I don't get to do that very often so to just have a completely free evening where your mind is relaxed enough to read a book is exquisite.
If you learn something that changes you, you've made progress. If you learn something that changes others, you've helped change the world.
That strong mother doesn't tell her cub, Son, stay weak so the wolves can get you. She says, Toughen up, this is reality we are living in.
We weren't put here to be miserable. We were put here to do the best we can, and we should take our energy and improve our state of being.
Working with Gabby [Sidibe], I realized immediately that she was amazingly talented. I could tell just by the way she'd get into the role.
I found that things became a lot easier when I no longer expected to win. You abandon your masterpiece and sink into the real masterpiece.
I try to be a guide for people, to make their darkness bright and to make the pathway light, and never to condemn or control or criticize.
I came from a family where my people didn't like rhythm and blues. Bing Crosby - "Pennies from Heaven" - Ella Fitzgerald, was all I heard.
I've always had a love for music, and it developed as I learned jazz, blues, and gospel. And I performed with jazz singers in New Orleans.
I am such a complex person. I have so many different layers of my personality to choose from. I am super-sensitive, and I am super-strong.
My parents worked for Exxon, and they gave me every chance to take part in music. I took guitar lessons, and I was in the choir at school.
I get most of my inspiration from older records and older production styles, and that ends up rearing its head in the records that I make.
I always prefer other people's interpretations over my own, so I'm not very quick to make explicit what exactly a song or record is about.
One of the many things I learned from all of this: If you aren't willing to fight for what you believe in, then don't even enter the ring.
I think a lot of people have a problem with the fact that I've adopted an African child, a child who has a different color skin than I do.
I believe sometimes we aren't always in charge of everything that we do creatively. We submit to things as we're going on our own journey.
Most of the people I interact with on a daily basis don't even know what I do for a living, so the 'persona' thing doesn't amount to much.
I think if I had to choose another profession, I'd like to be a judge because I'm very capable of determining what's right and what's not.
I've crossed lines of word and wire and both have cut me deep. I've been frozen out and I've been on fire, and the tears are mine to weep.
I didn't know how to show my self love, and I didn't want anyone else to hurt me. So my tough girl attitude was like, 'I'm not having it.'
I just want my kid to not hate and to be a good human. That's what you try to do. You hope that they are the next evolution of your thing.
It is impossible to park a Ferrari (healthy new belief systems) in a space that is taken up by an old wreck (negative old belief systems).
I have so many plans! Sometimes it's hard to keep up because at this point it's just been me and the little bit of help my label gives me.
Have you seen my childhood? I'm searching for the world that I came from cause I've been looking around in the lost and found of my heart.
The lyrics, the strings, the chords, everything comes at the moment like a gift that is put right into your head and that's how I hear it.
When people ask me if I have a boyfriend, I tell them it’s my guitar because, really, it’s what I love and it’s what takes up all my time.
I wish I had more guts when I was younger because then I would've said things to people's faces instead of just running away all the time.
One of the goals of a spiritual practice is self-awareness, and one of the best tools of self-awareness is simple emotional vulnerability.
Being a good songwriter means paying attention and sticking your hand out the window to catch the song on the way to someone else's house!
A dead end street is a good place to turn around. Can't really fault the logic of that, unless you want to go down the dead end of course!
We may love men and we may live with men, but some of them have said stupendously inaccurate things about us, our bodies, and our psyches.
If it can affect me, if it has meaning to me, if I feel I can do it well, I will do it and record it and thats why I recorded these songs.
There's this art form in songwriting that's incredibly difficult - to be really funny in a song and also really touching. I can't do that.
I'm channelling my 14-year-old self. She's thinking about putting on her big hoop earrings and baggy pants and going to the mall downtown.
I'm not an amazingly trained soul singer, so with me it's about feeling and energy and spontaneity - that's a really big part of who I am.
Moving to London was a culture shock, but in a really good way. I'm more aware now, and I'm less trusting of people in the music industry.
It's hard to solo when you're walking around, especially when you're in Michael Jackson's presence. There are easier things in life to do.
Lord, my life is but a mist (James 4:14), yet through Your power, the things I give myself to can have an eternal impact. I am Your vessel
I think I work in two worlds. I'll always try to kick through a wall. I did that when I was younger and I still have my way of doing that.
I was so used to doing art that my fingers were like albino spiders. So it was just natural for me to go to a typewriter and write poetry.
I want to keep my life as unfettered as possible. So maybe I'll just pretend to get rare books from my catalogue, and not really get them.
The only thing I daydreamed about was being an opera singer. But I was so skinny and so pathetic that that sort of wasn't going to happen.
After leaving Queen, I decided to stop doing those mega-four-month tours. I go out for a month, and my dog recognizes me when I come home.
I'm like the random guy who you would think I'm a computer freak and you would think that I'm a massive art collector, but I'm really not.
The biggest turn-off for me is people who think the world of themselves. Arrogance is not a sexy quality, and it really gets on my nerves.
I always wanted to make a three-record set. 'Sign o' the Times' was originally supposed to be a triple album, but it ended up as a double.
It might be a shock to see me, but that's no reason for people to act crazy, and it doesn't give them license to chase me down the street.
I represent New York, I represent the Bronx, I represent the Dominican Republic. And I always have that in mind with everything that I do.
I need something bigger than myself. And the only thing that can be would be a child. Someone who would help me live even more selflessly.
I feel like I've set the example for loving your body no matter what size it is, but I also can set the example for being healthy as well.