Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I once went on the most grueling radio tour. Living in hotel rooms, sleeping in the backs of rental cars as my mom drove to three different cities in one day.
To me fearless isn't not having fears, it's not that you're not afraid of anything. I think that being fearless is having a lot of fears, but you jump anyway.
What I do is between me and the Lord, to examine and possibly alter the state of grace in which I live, and thereby the state of grace of anybody who listens.
I think the reason I was 23 before I ever wrote a song was that I was afraid of testing myself. What would I do if I discovered I didn't have anything to say?
I like hair each and every way. I like to give scalp massages - to pull and tug on it. But my favorite style is long, real hair in a dusty blonde-brown color.
As a kid, looking at Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, New Edition, the Temptations, Motown, people who I felt were huge artists, they made me wanna do something.
I just have to do prayers and meditation and affirmations to myself as I go throughout the day, and that's the only way I'm able to make it through some days.
Way over on the railroad, Tomorrow all the tipping trucks will unload together, Every scrapbook stuck with glue, And I'll stand beside you, Beside you, child.
I think if we keep on doing good music and people like us and they buy the magazine because we are in the magazine then they cant basically hate us hopefully.
I mean, I haven't been completely lacking in some enjoyment of Chuck Berry or Buddy Holly. But I just didn't pay attention to that period of music, obviously.
I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth; I came from really humble beginnings - the projects of New York City - and I worked my way to get to where I am.
I make charts of songs that are good candidates, good targets, so to speak. Then I try to come up with ideas for parodies. And 99% of those ideas are horrible.
My parents offered me the idea of ceilinglessness. There was no limit in terms of what was possible; no messages sent to me to say that I couldn't do anything.
Golf is the crack of sports. If you hit five good shots, you know you can hit six good shots. The next time you hit six good shots, you know you can hit seven.
I believe in fate and I believe that things happen for a reason, but I don't think that there's a high power, necessarily. I believe in karma very much though.
Anytime I hear songs that are so honest, whether they make the person who's singing it look good or not, there's a level of honesty that resonates with people.
You either create something there on the street, or nothing happens. It's brutal. But if you go through that for two or three years, it really toughens you up.
As any mom knows, having a baby is an extremely creative act and to love and create a baby, it's on par with any other creative act that we could come up with.
People were talking about songs of the common man in order to make the common man. With Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly, they were so common it was just uncommon.
I have those songs as well. It depends on what I'm going through in my life but I'm a huge fan of Bjork. Sometimes I get so emotional because she's so amazing.
Once when I was 16 I had my car taken away from me for being past curfew. Oh, and I said a bad word once, and I actually did get my mouth washed out with soap.
Every hip-hop artist I have worked with has a respect for higher power, whether that's church, Allah, or any sort of higher being - they all have a humbleness.
I really believe that if you want something bad enough, and you work so hard to get it, and you have it inside, then if you just never stop, it's gonna happen.
I've felt real pain, and sometimes I channel the exhale coming out of that to write, and those are the songs that give me the most power and the most strength.
I've been called many names like perfectionist, difficult and obsessive. I think it takes obsession, takes searching for the details for any artist to be good.
We went for the best overall feel on each song. There are no musical overdubs at all. It's a true live record; it's one of the few true live records out there.
In my late teens, I fell out of love with music - you know how kids are, when you're encouraged to do something, you rebel. But then I picked it back up again.
So many people have told me that it's quite different playing out in the States, and obviously, as a musician, touring in the States is kind of the Holy Grail.
Suffering for your art is most definitely overrated but I do get a certain, I don't know, satisfaction from being able to deal with my paranoia and insecurity.
I've had a wordless phase, and that's still not entirely over: what I sing is not always literally meant that way, and you can hear that in the way it is sung.
People fall in love and swear they are so sure, then they turn around and say it's over. I never trusted love to come any closer till the moment you were mine.
I am now a turtle. Virtually everything I own is on my back and suffice it to say I am one ton lighter and therefore 2,000 pounds happier. All houses are gone.
I suppose all of those New Romantic clubs were quite up their own asses in a way. Well, Taboo was up its own ass in a different way, but not in terms of rules.
The nice thing about the world that I've been able to inhabit for the last couple of years is that I'm given a lot of freedom. Not all artists really get that.
With my guys and with the way that we live out there, we work out a lot and try to eat right, but we try to basically keep it our own rhythm and our own world.
I think in terms of emotions. And feelings. So sometimes what I say may not always be clear. But creatively, there's a lot to be said for that way of thinking.
I know now that I want to do more voice-over projects. They really have the ability to transport you into the world of whatever movie it is you are working on.
Music is just such... it's not therapy, but it's a release, it's a joy, it's a pleasure. And it's a job - which is weird, because I don't think of it as a job.
After university, I set out to see if I could make a career in music. It was a tough journey at first, but by the time I was 23 I'd been signed by A&M Records.
I've had nine major operations in ten years. A lot of it is to do with something called retroperitoneal fibrosis, where the internal tissues attack each other.
God is in control and knowing that at the end of the day what happens - whether I'm comfortable with it or not or afraid of it or not - that God is in control.
I've seen too many celebrities fall from their morals, and I wanna come up under that and be THAT girl that doesn't need a scandal to make herself look better.
And hey, it's okay to laugh at yourself sometimes, I do dumb things all the time (haha). But when it get's too personal, get your tough skin on and stand firm.
Yes, my first memory of singing, in general, was of a Christmas song. And then listening to Christmas music was really the first music I was ever connected to.
If I had to live again I would do exactly the same thing. Of course I have regrets, but if you are 60 years old and you have no regrets then you haven't lived.
When I was pregnant with Future, one thing I learned quickly was, don't ever let a pregnant lady be hungry, because when I was, I was like the Tasmanian Devil!
When you get respect from the people who are buying your music and coming to your shows, there's an expectation that you have to live up to your own standards.
One thing about hanging out with a baby is that you can remember a little bit better what it was like to be a kid, and all the mystery that came along with it.
Music is unique because you can get behind enemy lines a little bit, get into people's houses and into their heads, on their stereos, and win hearts and minds.
Fame doesn't redeem you. It takes a long time to get there, and when you're finally there, you realise you still have authority figures telling you what to do.