India.Arie
I know that I pray a lot, and I take time for myself.
I write about my experiences, so a lot of times, I do write about people.
I always loved music, but I didn't know if I could be the kind of artist that makes a difference.
In Denver, all we really had was pop radio, so I grew up on all that late '70s pop stuff - Billy Joel, James Taylor, Lionel Richie, Elton John, Steve Miller and Toto. Great love songs and really hooky and melodic music - I have all of that stuff in my heart.
Music lives in my mother - she's played in bands in Detroit and toured and did the whole thing. So I have somebody who's done it all to just talk to. And we write songs together.
If I don't have the right clothes, I feel weird walking out; I don't feel comfortable in what I have on. I have different colors that I want to wear on different days because it makes me feel different.
Even when it doesn't look good, it's always good. Even the worst thing, there's always something good that comes out of it. I've learned that.
If I were not a black artist but I was still singing, playing guitar, and singing ballads that are spiritual and cerebral, I'd be easier to market because people accept that from white female singer-songwriters faster.
I always felt like - I mean, I was told, really - I couldn't go too far with the productions because it didn't appeal to black radio. It wasn't until I decided I was going to do what I wanted to do or I was going to quit that I empowered myself. I took my power back.
What did not demolish me simply polished me.Collection: Polished
I heard a voice that told me I'm essential. How all my fears are limiting my potential. Said it's time to step into the light and use every bit of power i have inside.Collection: Light
I'm not the average girl from your video and I ain't built like a supermodel but I learned to love myself unconditionally because i am a queenCollection: Love
In a world of smoke and ashes, you are milk and honeyCollection: Milk And Honey
Life is a journey, not a destination; there are no mistakes, just chances we've taken.Collection: Inspirational
The difference between living and feeling alive, is using your fear as fuel to fly.Collection: Differences
No matter what anybody says, what matters most is what you think of yourself.Collection: Thinking
What tried to demolish me, I allowed to polish me.Collection: Polish
God is infinitely creative, and everyone's different, and everyone has a different path, a different lesson, a different song, a different face, a different voice.Collection: Song
Success is clarity of my intention....and reaching that intention while being true to myself and with joy.Collection: Joy
Your real job in this world is to be you.Collection: Jobs
Break the Shell”: “Child, it’s time to break the shell Life’s gonna hurt but it’s meant to be felt You cannot touch the sky from inside yourself You cannot fly until you break the shell.Collection: Hurt
Because you never know where life is gonna take you, And you can't change where you've been, But today, I have the opportunity to choose.Collection: Opportunity
Strength, courage & wisdom...it's been inside of me all along.Collection: Courage Strength
The worst disease in the world is hate. And the cure for hate is love.Collection: Love
The truth, it needs no proof. Either it is or it isn't.Collection: Needs
One of the things that I've worked my way out of doing, and I knew that I needed to, was comparing myself to other people. That just poisins everything. It all of a sudden dtermines even clothes you're going to choose to wear that day or what you're going to do with a music production or how you're going to sequence it. It poisinseverything. Your real job in the world is to be you. Comparing yourself to other people I think that hurt me more than anything. Allowing myself to go there so much in my head hurt me.Collection: Hurt
Go on and love yourself, cause everything's gonna be alright.Collection: Love You
My body is beautiful and sacred, and I'm going to celebrate it.Collection: Beautiful
There aint no substitute for the truth, either it is or it isnt. You see the truth it needs no proof, either it is or it isnt. And you know the truth by the way you feel.Collection: Needs
The only thing constant in the world is change, that's why today I take life as it comes.Collection: World
The songs that I've written about Africa, and AIDS and HIV and about the power of humanitarian love, those songs, I'm gonna sing them because I know that it's real.Collection: Music
Make choices that are loving for yourself - with your diet, your relationships, and in speaking your loving truth - that are in alignment with what you want to be doing. When you see that in a person, you are seeing their passion and fulfillment, and that person feels good to you because they feel good to themselves. I know that I feel good and I think that comes across on stage; when I didn't feel good before, I think that came across on stage.Collection: Inspiring
It doesn't cost a thing to smile.Collection: Cost
Your work is to find healing. And I find, for me, it's a little bit at a time, and eventually it's barely there. And the journey is finding what works for you and doing it.Collection: Healing
If you give me half a chance. I'll prove this to you. I will be patient, kind, faithful and true.Collection: Giving
I'm African American, I'm a lot of other things, a musician and an artist. But that woman part holds the most pain for me. And therefore, obviously, the most lessons.Collection: Pain
If you create the game, then you create the rules.Collection: Games
I was born in love with music. My mother is a singer, many of my aunts and uncles on my mother's side are musical, my grandparents sang and played blues piano. It's literally in my blood. My mother wrote an original song to teach me the days of the week.Collection: Mother
My life is so tumultuous. I dive into everything. I'm feeling all up and down and sleepy and moody and hormonal - it just gets crazy. Just to keep myself balanced, I do things like yoga and meditation.Collection: Crazy
I managed because of my mother. I managed because I'm strong. I managed the same way every other abuse survivor survives, you just do. So many people have been abused, it's not rare, it's a very common human experience, and we survive. Also, my music plays a big role in my thriving. Having an outlet, it really makes a difference.Collection: Mother
I have, my whole life, been healing the girl inside, the part of me that struggles about being a female in the world. That's why I write about the things I write about.Collection: Girl
There is one relationship I was in that I learned a lot from. I learned a lot from the situation about myself and about relationships and about love, about how to relate to people, about forgiveness and the stuff that comes with being in a relationship.Collection: People
I'm just in that stage where I pray for God to show me how I can be effective in the world and things come up and I go. But I have yet to really dig in.Collection: World
It's always sad to me when certain people are excluded from being considered beautiful... because of someone else's expectation. That bothers me.Collection: Beautiful