Alicia Keys
There's too much darkness in the world. Everywhere you turn, someone is tryin' to tear someone down in some way; everywhere you go, there's a feeling of inadequacy, or a feeling that you're not good enough. I want to bring a certain light to the world.Collection: Good
I feel like the majority of the fear that I had or that we have we hold from other people. They're like people that we trust; they're their fears. All of a sudden we think that they're our fears.Collection: Trust
My mom is definitely my rock.Collection: Mothers
I grew up in the middle of everything. I walked the streets alone, I rode the trains alone, I came home at three in the morning alone; that was what I did.Collection: Morning
If I want to be alone, some place I can write, I can read, I can pray, I can cry, I can do whatever I want - I go to the bathroom.Collection: Alone
I don't have a ton of friends, but the friends I have are great ones. I don't have huge family, but the family I have is a great one.Collection: Family
I really appreciate Frank Ocean's lyrical style, I appreciate the way that he can kind of draw you into this personal space, but it's still lyrical. It's almost poetic, in a way, but it's very personal at the same time.Collection: Space
Failure isn't an option. I've erased the word 'fear' from my vocabulary, and I think when you erase fear, you can't fail.Collection: Fear
I lived with my mom in a really small apartment. My bedroom was like in the living room. That's why I still love to sleep on couches now.Collection: Mom
I love Bono. I really respect what he has done for Africa and how he has used his fame to do good in the world. I hope I can do half as much in my life.Collection: Hope
I'm a very positive person, but this whole concept of having to always be nice, always smiling, always happy, that's not real. It was like I was wearing a mask. I was becoming this perfectly chiselled sculpture, and that was bad. That took a long time to understand.Collection: Positive
My mom always said, 'Don't date a guy who thinks he's prettier than you.'Collection: Mom
My music comes from many, many, many places. My emotions, my feelings, my thoughts, and conversations I have with people I know who influence me.Collection: Music
Maturity and experience are part of my liberation.Collection: Experience
Soul music is timeless.Collection: Music
When I was first learning songs, I'd have a favorite song, and I'd take the chords and twist them around. I'd learn the chords and then play them backward. That was my first experimenting with writing a song.Collection: Learning
The element of fire to me is very powerful because of what it symbolizes, how it symbolizes a strength. It symbolizes something that's unstoppable. You can't get through it, you know.Collection: Strength
I feel more like I'm a person who has so much to offer in different capacities that it would be a danger for me not to give myself a chance to spread my wings in all different directions.Collection: Chance
I feel like B sides are always better, no matter whose record it is.
I promised myself that I'd never actually admit to listening to 'New Kids on the Block.'
I'm a very caring person.
I'm very happy with my body.
I've always been strong-minded, but I wonder.
My mother is an actress, and she used to drag me from theater to theater and reading to reading.
Not because I'm trying to be fabulous, but I love those big crazy Jackie O shades.
Stevie Wonder's records introduced me to '70s soul when I was 12 or 13.
When I was younger, studying classical music, I really had to put in the time. Three hours a day is not even nice - you have to put in six.
Once people see this 'Unplugged,' I just want them to feel the spontaneity, to feel passionate... I want you to see another side of me, that's free, and feel where my head is, where whatever happens, happens. I want you to feel inspired.
Adam Levine and I remade the Rolling Stones' classic Wild Horses, and it is right up my alley, that whole style. It has a style of its own but still stays very true to the classic arrangement, and I love it.
A lot of times I watch TV and I watch film and there's so many things I'd love to talk about that I feel don't get the opportunity to be shown. Sometimes things become very stereotypical and one-sided, and I feel like it's such a colorful world.
I love my legs.
I've stepped more into my womanhood, I'm a mother now, I'm having a beautiful relationship as a wife and as a friend.
I've stepped more into my business and really... taken control for how I want that to be.
I have big everything on the bottom, but I love my legs. You've got to love what's yours.
I think you are who you are, and your kids will see who you are. So you'd better be a good person, because they are going to see it, and that's going to shape them. They are going to become you.
I've always valued the input of the people I love. So in the past, whenever I'd make a decision - what to wear to an event, whether to pursue a job opportunity - I'd consult those closest to me, like my mother, husband, or manager.
I've learned that while I'd be a fool not to stay open to the advice and experiences of the smart, amazing people in my life, I also need to listen to what I have to say.
I think I grew up really fast; I grew up in this really fast-paced business, and I never understood what it meant to take a break or take time off or recover, and I paid for it.
I grew up in a pretty tough neighborhood.
I grew up around the theatre. My mother is an actress. I would fall asleep on tons of theatre chairs. It's in my blood; it's in my spirit and my fabric of who I am.
I've always been very private, maybe because I discovered my mother, who is a wonderful lady, is very emotional.
I was worried that one day, 40 years from now, I would look back and wouldn't be able to remember the details of my life, so I've written them all down.
I want to continue to produce film, television, and theater, and to make the most amazing music that I've made in my life.
People don't expect me to be as funny as I am.
When I'm on stage, my interaction with the audience is something that really makes me come alive. It's a feeling like no other. The energy of the crowd fuels something new inside.
From the beginning, I've had to juggle and weigh the silly things people say - and I've learnt that they're meaningless, and they're mostly inaccurate. So I don't worry about it, because there's nothin' for me to deal with.
Music is funny. I shouldn't even ever talk about music, because you can have all the ideas in your head, and it never goes exactly the way that you think it's gonna go.
I love children and I love family and I love that interaction. Because I had a really close relationship with my mother, I understand that deep powerful love, and it's so beautiful. To be a mother to a child is the most brilliant gift; it's gorgeous.
I have solid decent people around me, and I believe that is all it is, because you will get destroyed if you have people bringing you down.
Most times, your blessings are also your curses. And for me, I have this ability to express myself so clearly with pen and paper, but when it comes to expressing myself verbally, I put up a big wall.