Gloria Estefan
I have great genes. Thank you to my mom and dad for that one.Collection: Dad
Motherhood is... difficult and... rewarding.Collection: Mothers
In this life, I'm always going to choose the positive.Collection: Positive
My mom was definitely very strict with me.Collection: Mom
The sad truth is that opportunity doesn't knock twice.Collection: Sad
I have a very open line of communication with both my children.Collection: Communication
My mom was a source of strength. She showed me by example that women, regardless of how difficult life may get, can do it all.Collection: Mom
There are so many beautiful things that are a part of the world, and I've always looked at life that way; I've always tried to put on a smile and a brave front, not just for my kids but in my own life and all the difficulties that I've gone through.Collection: Smile
I wrote poetry, which got me into lyrics. Stevie Wonder, Carole King, Elton John pulled me into pop. I started singing with a band - just for fun - when I was 17. And pretty soon, I was thinking I could sing pop in English as well as Spanish.Collection: Poetry
Whatever it is your heart desires, please go for it, it's yours to have.
We seal our fate with the choices we take, but don't give a second thought to the chances we take.
When you're a front man for a band, there's nowhere to hide. It took me a long time to get used to that. But music is my first love. I started singing when I talked.
The Internet has been a blessing and a curse. The curse we know: A lot of people appropriating your intellectual property without paying for it. But I think it's important to realize the blessing of the Internet, which is that everybody has a voice and you can break through, even without a record company.
All I tell artists is, 'Do what you love. Never let anybody talk you into changing what your musical idea is just to try to get a hit, because you're chasing your tail that way. It's not going to happen, and if you're successful, you have to do it the rest of your life. Stay true to it and do it for the sake of the art.'
As an immigrant, I appreciate, far more than the average American, the liberties we have in this country. Silence is a big enemy of morality. I don't want our blunders in history to get repeated.
Once you know the Romance languages, singing in those languages is so sexy and sensual. I do have a global audience, so why not?
My mum had a very strong moral code, which I kind of came with. I never really had to be told what was right or wrong - I knew. I was very mature from early on and I was a very good girl, so she never had any trouble with me.
Apparently Pope John Paul II and his boys - is that what you call them? - loved one of my songs and thought I was putting spiritual messages in my music. I'm not religious as such. Dogma and I don't get along.
There are so many difficult things we're living through in the world today, so many horrible events, but we cannot let them stop us. No matter what happens, I feel you must move forward with optimism and not get totally sideswiped.
When I was a teenager, I was fat. I was shy. I wore glasses. I had a big eyebrow and hair all over my body. They were years of torture.
You've got to believe. Never be afraid to dream.
The reason I'm not more political is because I have music. And from a young age, I needed it. After prison, my father came to America, joined the Army, fought in Vietnam - and was exposed to Agent Orange. He died a slow, horrible death. Music was my escape.
You can put things off until tomorrow but tomorrow may never come.
I've been offered a lot of things that celebrities do that I wouldn't do, like perfumes, lines of clothing and this, that and the other.
I'm a writer and this is what I love to do.
There's no reason that just because you're a celebrity you can't write.
Sometimes my mother had difficulty communicating with me about certain topics.
Sex and drugs were simply not discussed in our culture at that time.
There are certain realities we must speak of with our children that were not present when I was a child.
My mother had a beautiful, soothing voice that made me melt.
The responsibility of carrying and bringing a new life into this world is one that cannot be taken lightly.
To know that everything we say and do to this new little human being may have a profound effect on him or her is a daunting obligation.
I think that the only way to teach is by example, as children will more easily follow what they see you do than what you tell them to do.
Being Latin parents makes us extremely expressive with our affections.
We protect aspirin bottles in this country better than we protect guns from accidents by children.
Having felt people's love and support first hand through difficult moments in my life makes me feel it's our responsibility to help one another.
As an artist, you dream about accumulating enough successful music to someday do just one greatest-hits album, but to reach the point where you're releasing your second collection of hits is beyond belief.
Nothing ever stays in the middle. You always go from one extreme to the other, and politics is certainly that way.
The '70s were a hot time. You know? I was, like, the most calm of all my friends.
I don't want anything from Cuba. I want them to be free and enjoy the things I enjoy.
I'd love to have a program like 'Dr. Laura.' I studied psychology at the University of Miami, and when I rode the bus home from school, perfect strangers would strike up conversations with me and end up telling me their life stories. I think they could sense that I was studying to help people. That, or I have a face like a priest.
A lot of the way I sing is playing off other musicians. It's what I love to do the most.
When most artists walk offstage, they go to a lonely hotel room. I went home to my family. They were there before the show, during and after. It's been great. I never would have done it any other way. I wasn't gonna miss raising my kids. There was no way that was gonna happen.
I gotta tell you, my nature is not to be the center of attention.
In the United States, if you believe in yourself and you're determined and persevere, you're going to succeed.
If there's ever been a dark moment in my life... well, I wanted to check out. Music was a big escape.
My mom was an amazing singer and music was a big part of my life, so I grew up listening to Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, Henry Mancini; I used to watch 'The Andy Williams Show' on TV. I was very musical, so I was watching stuff that most kids my age wouldn't be interested in.
I love Gershwin. I love musicals.
I hold 'Mi Tierra,' my first Spanish-language album, very close to me because that was all done in my native tongue and won me my first Grammy.
My inspirations include the Beatles - love, love, love them - Elton John, Carole King, and Stevie Wonder.