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People Have Often Asked Me, Do I Want To Be The Next Oprah - There Is No Such Thing. Oprah Is Oprah, And She's Still Being Oprah If Anybody Hasn't Noticed... What I Bring To Tv Is Myself... I Really Think There's Space In Daytime Tv For A Whole Bunch Of Fun, Some Amazing Music, And Some Heart.

-Queen Latifah

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People Have Often Asked

Queen Latifah

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People Have Often Asked Me, Do I Want To Be The Next Oprah - There Is No Such Thing. Oprah Is Oprah, And She's Still Being Oprah If Anybody Hasn't Noticed... What I Bring To Tv Is Myself... I Really Think There's Space In Daytime Tv For A Whole Bunch Of Fun, Some Amazing Music, And Some Heart.

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I'm Not Living Large; I Just Want To Live Comfortably. I Wanna Have Financial Stability That Is Unshakable.

Dolly Parton Made Me Chicken And Dumplings. That Tennessee Woman Can Burn Some Pots! And We Know That I Am Not Necessarily Shy To A Fork!

When I Was Around 18, I Looked In The Mirror And Said, 'you're Either Going To Love Yourself Or Hate Yourself.' And I Decided To Love Myself. That Changed A Lot Of Things.

Loving Yourself

You Have To Allow Your Mind To Create And Then If You Want To Censor Something And Bring It Down Or Point It In A Different Direction, Then You Can Do It.

As A Teenager, I Had Big Breasts For My Age, And My Friends Cracked On Me A Lot.

I Never Pictured Myself As Just A Rapper; I Always Wanted To Act And Do Whatever Else I Could Do. I Always Felt Like I Could Do A Lot Of Different Things.

You Can't Ask Someone Who Is Not Making That Kind Of Money To Go To The Record Store And Buy An Album When Someone Down The Street Has The Same Record With Same Sound Quality For $5.

When We Understand That We Are A Human Race, What Affects You Affects Me, What Affects Her Affects You And So On And So On, Then We'll Look At This Thing [hiv/aids] For What It Really Is. It's A Disease That's Out To Kill All Of Us. What Will Make It Continue Is Our Prejudices, Our Ideas About It, And The Fact That We Don't Look At Ourselves As One Giant Community.

Hip-hop Definitely Taught Me A Lot. Having To Create Your Own Identity And Become Known And Respected In A Male-dominated Field - It Requires Some Guts. There Are Times You Have To Be Strong, And Times When You Have To Stand Alone For What You Believe In.

Roxanne Shanté Was Kind Of The First Female To Really Come Out And Get Respected By Dudes, Because She Went At Dudes Real Hard And Battled Them And Freestyled A Lot, And Really Came Off The Head A Lot.

If We Focus On Our Health, Including Our Inner Health, Our Self-esteem, And How We Look At Ourselves And Our Confidence Level, We'll Tend To Be Healthier People Anyway, We'll Tend To Make Better Choices For Our Lives, For Our Bodies, We'll Always Be Trying To Learn More, And Get Better As Time Goes On.

I Know People Who Are Twice As Creative As I Am, Twice As Smart, But They Didn't Do Anything Because They Feared Going Into A Room And Opening Their Mouths. My Parents Told Me To Truly Accomplish Things In My Life, There Would Be Times I Would Have To Stand Alone. It May Be Scary, But That's What It Requires.

I Was Not Born A Size 2. I'm Not Skinny, Period. I'm Not Willing To Sleep With The Director Or Step On Somebody Else's Neck To Get The Job.

I Feel Very Positive About Newark's Future, But I Know We Need A Lot Of Help. I Think That Starts With The Education Of Our Kids And Making The Streets Safer.

I Have A Drum Set In My Dressing Room. I Play Drums To Relax And Have Some Fun.

Musicals Are Good Times. I Live To Do A Musical, There's Nothing Like It, No Experience Like That In The Movie Business. You Don't Get To Pull All Those Triggers At The Same Time Doing Anything Else. Nothing Pulls That From You. Dancing, Acting And Singing Is Like "alright, I Gotta Fire On All Cylinders Right Now" Because That's What It Requires. It's Fun Getting To Exercise All Those Muscles.

Lets Be Clear, Dolly Parton Is A Rapper. Somewhere Before All The Country, I Don't Know What Happens Up There In The Mountains When You're Growing Up, But She Has Been Spitting Rhymes For A Very Long Time - 50 Years I'd Say.

You Can't Let Fear Paralyze You. The Worse That Can Happen Is You Fail, But Guess What: You Get Up And Try Again. Feel That Pain, Get Over It, Get Up, Dust Yourself Off And Keep It Moving.

While We [people] Keep Putting A Face On Hiv And Aids, I Think What We Forget Is That There Are Human Beings, Just People With Emotions And Feelings, Women Who Want To Be Loved, Men Who Want To Be Loved, Who Want To Feel Something.

To Step Into Acting Was Not That Difficult A Transition To Make. What Was Difficult Was The Work And The Practice That Went Into Becoming Good At It, Because I Hadn't Had Any Training.

I Had To Grow To Love My Body. I Did Not Have A Good Self-image At First. Finally It Occurred To Me, I'm Either Going To Love Me Or Hate Me. And I Chose To Love Myself. Then Everything Kind Of Sprung From There. Things That I Thought Weren't Attractive Became Sexy. Confidence Makes You Sexy.

Living For Today Will Bring About Dying For Today. You Can’t Just Think, ‘i’m Going To Die Anyway,’ Because That’s What’s Stopping Us From Moving Forward.

As A Rapper, You Sort Of Act In Music Videos And In The Persona You Adopt Onstage. You Kinda Have To Put Yourself Out There And Be Courageous Even To Be A Rapper. So, To Step Into Acting Was Not That Difficult A Transition To Make.

I'm As Involved As I Can Be. Whenever I'm Asked To Do Something, I Always Tend To Show Up.

I Like To Keep Some Coloring Tools Around To Draw Vistas.

We Ignore Our Feelings A Lot, I Realize. Many Of Us Have To... Until They Really Bite Us In The Butt.

A Confident Woman Is A Sexy Woman, In My Opinion. And I Think Guys Find That To Be The Same Way.

I Approach The Film Business The Way I Feel About Self-esteem. It's Something That Has To Be Maintained. That's Kind Of How I Feel About Positive Roles In Hollywood. They Have To Be Maintained. You Have To Purposefully, Intentionally Try To Make The Right Type Of Films. And The More People That Do That, The More Things Will Continue To Improve.

To Me, Doing A Gay Pride Show Is One Of The Most Fun Things. My First Show That Paid More Than $10,000 Was In A Gay Club On New Year’s Eve In San Francisco.

To Wanna Be Me Is To Go Through Not Just The Good But The Bad. You Wanna Share My Story Identically? Man, You Gonna Take Some Lumps.

Dreams Become Reality When We Put Our Minds To It.

I Enjoy Going To Work And Having A Good Time. It's Tough When You Got To Work With People Who Just Are In A Bad Mood All The Damn Time.

Running For Office Was Definitely Something I've Thought About. When I Was Younger, I Wanted To Major In Political Science. And I've Been Engaged In Current Events Since I Was A Kid. If I Can Make A Difference And Feel Passionately And Capable, Then I Would. Why Not?

I Was Taught From A Young Age That Many People Would Treat Me As A Second-class Citizen Because I Was African-american And Because I Was Female.

African American

It's Not Always Easy To Do The Right Thing. But, Doing The Right Thing Makes You Strong, It Builds Character, It Forces You To Make Decisions Based Upon Your Beliefs And Not What Other People Think. In Life, And In Business, You Have To Stand For What You Believe In And Sometimes You Have To Stand Alone. But, What Makes You A Leader Is Having The Courage Of Your Convictions.

There Are Times You Can't Really See Or Even Feel How Sweet Life Can Be. Hopefully Its Mountains Will Be Higher Than Its Valleys Are Deep. I Know Things That Are Broken Can Be Fixed. Take The Punch If You Have To, Hit The Canvas And Then Get Up Again. Life Is Worth It.

I Believe That The Kids, Young People Should Have An Opportunity To Have Oscar Nominated Actors In Their Movies Too.

When I Was Growing Up, There Were So Many Musicals You Could Watch. I Like The Fantasy Of Musicals And I Love Music.

I Enjoy Just Being Me. I Don't Need To Be Queen Latifah, The Brand, 24 Hours A Day.

I'm Not Allowed To Get A Big Head, I've Still Got To Do The Simple Things In Life.

When It Came Time To Be A Professional Rapper, I Wouldn't Sign Anything Without Reading It. There Was No Way I Was Going To Have People Make Decisions For Me Or Wake Up One Day And Find That I Was Broke Because I Never Bothered To Read A Contract.

I'm Probably Proudest Of Being Able To Lift A Lot Of Us Out Of The 'hood. That's The Biggest Thing, That I've Been Able To Employ A Lot Of People And Give Them Opportunities.

There Are A Lot Of People Who Helped Make Queen Latifah Who She Is Today. I Don't Forget, But A Lot Of People Do And Get Big Heads.

For Me, My Criteria For Making Films Is All About Trying To Do Something Different From The Last Time. So If I Catch Myself Doing Too Much Of One Thing, I'm Always Trying To Move Away From That, Because It's Not Going To Be Challenging Enough To Keep My Attention And Focus.

I Was Baptized A Baptist, But I'm Just Christian, As Far As I'm Concerned. I Could Go In Any Church, Doesn't Matter If It's Baptist, Protestant, Episcopal, Or Catholic.

Be Bold, Be Brave Enough To Be Your True Self.

To Me, Hip Hop Will Never Be Right Until Female Rappers Have A Stronger Voice In It.

When I'm Doing Something I Love, I Can Lose Sleep. I Can Go And Go And Go And Go. My Work Ethic Is Pretty Intense. But When It Comes To Doing Something That I Don't Love Every Day, I'm Not Very Good At It. That's Called Work, And I Don't Like Work That Much.

There Are So Many Things I'd Like To Do. Like Becoming A Parent. To Me That Is The Next Natural Progression In Life.

The Females Don't Respect Themselves; They Only Think Materialistically. They Want Money, But They Don't Think, I'm Gonna Get This Money On My Own, They Think, I'm Gonna Get Money From This Guy.

I Write Pretty Often. I Have A Home Studio. Music Is What I Do For Fun. I Never Get Tired Of It, So To Take A Break From [tv And Movies], I Would Go Make Some Music.

I Lost My Brother When I Was 22. He Was Only 24. I Was Always The Kind Of Person To Live On The Edge, But After That, It Made Me Feel Like I Could Really Die. It Can Really Happen. Before Then, I Never Thought It Could Happen To Me Or My Family.

Don't You Want To Know What's Real And What's Not? I Remember When I Was A Kid, You Know, This Whole Cold War Thing. They Had Us Scared Of The Russians. So, It's Almost Like, What's Real And What's Not?

Always Follow Your Own Path.

I'd Like To Have And Adopt Children. I Think I'd Be A Great Mom, Honestly. I Don't Think I'll Have Any Problem Giving Them All The Love In The World. Discipline Will Be The Hard Part.

It's Not Necessarily What A Family Is Typically Supposed To Look Like. But It Is What It Is. It's About A Connection And Bond That Everyone Can Identify With.

It Is What It Is

Church Was A Requirement, There Was No Choice In The Matter, So Was Vacation Bible School. Gospel Has Been In Me Since I Was A Kid.

I Want To Have And Adopt. I Always Have, Ever Since I Was 18 I Wanted A Baby And I Wanted To Have And Adopt Because There Are A Lot Of Kids. I Want To Adopt An American Baby Though, You Know What I Mean, No Offense. Just Because There Are So Many Kids Here That Need Our Help.

Most People Don't Have So Much Talent That They Can Become A Success All Their Own. We All Need People To Help Us And Lift Us Up.

I Am Used To Being On Tours With People Who Are Fantastic Performers And I Respect Them And I Love Their Music. But The Bottom Line Is They Got The Vision For What We Are Trying To Do.

I'd Say, If You Want To Be An Artist, Start With Your Art; Start With Making Great Music And It Will, Hopefully, Eventually Cut Through All Of The Nonsense That Is Out There.

I Decided Early On That I Was Going To Put On My Crown And Rule My World By Acting Right And Treating Myself Like A Queen.

I Love Ralph Lauren, Just As A Designer. I Still Think He Could Make Some Better Sizes With His Clothes, But I Like The Idea Of His Classic American Style.

There Are Still Some Places I'd Love To Visit - Africa, China, Brazil, India. I Want To Travel The World And Experience Other Cultures And Peoples.

We All Have To Show Up And Do Our Job Regardless Of Our Life Circumstances Or Situations. We Don't Have To Do It With An Attitude Or Whatever But Maybe We Do That Day. Everyone Understands That Life Happens And We Have To Create A Whole Other Life Where Our Life Doesn't Even Exist. You Know, Our Real Life Doesn't Exist, These Characters Exist. And That Is Our Life. And That's Who We Are.

There Are A Lot Of People Who Helped Make Queen Latifah Who She Is Today. I Don't Forget, But A Lot Of People Do And Get Big Heads. My Mom Will Make Me Walk The Dogs Or Take Out The Trash When I Go Home. I'm Not Allowed To Get A Big Head; I've Still Got To Do The Simple Things In Life.

There Is Nothing Like A Person With Confidence, Male Or Female, Not Conceitedness, But Confidence. That Inspires Other People.

I Already Enjoy Cooking. I Like Different Flavors And Putting Different Things Together And Really Like Taking Normal Recipes To A Higher Level.

I've Never Wanted To Be Put Into A Box, Not Musically.

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.

Having Black Hair Is Unique In That Black Women Change Up Styles A Lot. You Can Walk Down One Street Block In New York City And See 10 Different Hairstyles That Black Women Are Wearing: Straight Curls, Short Cuts, Braids - We Really Run The Gamut.

I Want Every Day To Be Life For The Living, Not Just Traipsing Through It Existing. I'm Just Interested In Life And The World And Exploring.

I Always Loved All Kinds Of Music. I Would Watch Musicals A Lot As A Kid, On Tv, Watch The Fred Astaire Movies. I'd Watch 'the Wizard Of Oz.' I Was A Big Jerry Lewis Fan, And They'd Have These Big Bands And Someone Singing - Some Siren, Or Some Guy Singing Some Gorgeous Song. I Was Always Enamored Of That Style Of Music.

If You Try To Follow Everyone Else's Mold, You'll Probably Fail At Some Point Because God Created Us Uniquely For A Reason.

You Do Silly Things For Love Sometimes And Not-so-smart Things For Love.

I Really Don't Know How To Be Anyone Else, And Whenever I Try To Be Anyone Else, I Fail Miserably. Or I Disappoint Myself. It Doesn't Build My Self-esteem, And It Doesn't Help Me Grow Me At All.

I Definitely Think We Need To Lean More On God. And I Do Think We Need To Praise, Because We Need To Give It Outward. You Know, Whenever You Think You're In Tough Circumstances, There's Always Somebody Who's In A Worse Position Than You.

Every Woman Is A Queen, And We All Have Different Things To Offer.

I Feel Strongly That Women Who Look Like Me Should Feel Great. So I Am Not Changing.

I Am A Strong Woman With Or Without This Other Person, With Or Without This Job, And With Or Without These Tight Pants.

I Want To See 10 Female Rappers Getting Regular Rotation. It Can't Be All About A Man's Opinion.

Instinct Leads Me To Another Flow

God Has Always Been In My Life And His Little Voice In Me That Lets Me Know When I'm Falling A Little Too Far Left Or Right, Up Or Down You Know. I Know Because There Is A Little Voice That Starts Saying, 'damn It, What Are You Doing? You Need To Slow Down With That' Or I Might Not Be A Good Person To Hang Around You Know... So God Will Do This To Me In Some Sort Of Way. Or Something Bad Will Happen To Me.

For Myself Music Definitely Informs My Emotions. And I Can Literally Play A Song That Will Get Me Where I Need To Be Emotionally. I Don't Have To Think About The Tragic Things That Happened In My Life Or The Greatest Things That Happened In My Life.

The Movie I've Seen A Million Times Is 'steel Magnolias,' Directed By Herbert Ross, Starring Sally Field And Julia Roberts.

Those Curveballs Are Always Coming-eventually, You Learn To Hit Some Of Them.

I Love Music. I've Just Been Putting Studios Together, Here And At My House In New Jersey And So I Can Always Make Music And Express My Ideas And Work With People To Fine Tune Them To Where They Need To Be.

I Like Pirate's Booty. Prunes And Olives, Too. I Love Hummus. I Can Eat That Until I Die. I Tend To Eat Mostly Organic Food.

I Did Jay Leno With Mike The Situation, And He Just - He Lives, Like, Ten Minutes From Me In Jersey. He's Like, 'if You Ever Get A Flat, Call Me. I'll Come Fix Your Tire.' That's How We Do. That's Neighborly, You Know?

Beauty Is Not Just A White Girl. It's So Many Different Flavors And Shades.

Sometimes You Do Have To Bank On Yourself. You Do Have To Believe In Your Ideas Enough To Really Get Out There And Fight For It Despite What People Think Of Some Young Kids From The Hood.

I'm The Daughter Of A Sister Whose The Mother Of A Brother Who's The Brother Of Another.

A Lot Of People Are Crazy, Cruel And Negative. They Got A Little Too Much Time On Their Hands To Discuss Everybody Else. I Have A Limited Amount Of Energy To Blow In A Day. I'd Rather Read Something That I Like Or Watch A Program I Enjoy Or Ride My Damn Motorcycle Or Throw Back A Couple Of Shots Of Tequila With My Friends.

I Am Not One To Turn Down Macaroni And Cheese, Even Late At Night. I Love Italian Food. I Love Pasta... A Refrigerator Full Of Water And Gatorade? Honey, That's Just Not Gonna Happen.

I Think It's Important To Raise Your Kids, Start 'em Early. Teaching Them The Values And Morals, So When They Get Out There On Their Own, You Know They Have It. They Just Have To Remember To Use It, But They Have It.

[when I'm Not Working I Like To] Listen To Music, Watch Something Really Funny Like South Park.

Listening To Music

I've Been Giving Back Since I Was A Teen, Handing Out Turkeys At Thanksgiving And Handing Out Toys At Toys Drives For Christmas. It's Very Important To Give Back As A Youth. It's As Simple As Helping An Old Lady Across The Street Or Giving Up Your Seat On The Bus For Someone Who Is Pregnant.

There Was Always Music In Our Home. My Mom And My Dad Loved Music. I Remember When We Were Kids We Would Have These Great Parties At The House With Congas And Bongos And African Drums, And It Was Amazing. It Wasn't Until Years Later That I Found Out That They Were Actually Black Panther Meetings.

So Often, You Don't Get That Opportunity. You Only Go Over Everything Once And, The Next Thing You Know, You're On Set.

How Many Crossroads Are You Allowed To Have In Life? I Seem To Have A Lot Of Crossroads. I Think Maybe I Crossed Back Across The Same Road Too Often.

I Have Always Felt Strongly About Empowering Women. I'm Living Proof That, With Confidence And By Believing In Yourself, You Can Accomplish Any Goal.

There Are Different Flavours Of Sexiness.

When There's Something That Impacts A Family Member Or Friend, That Is Difficult For Them, You Want To Do What You Can To Help. Sometimes You Can't Do Anything And It Makes You Feel Like You're Helpless, So Those Emotions Cross A Big Barometer, But They're A Big, Broad Stroke When It Comes To Someone Who You Care About. If You Have Compassion In Your Heart, You Just Care.

Bowling, I Like Bowling. I've Been Getting Into This Bowling Thing. It's Kinda Fun.

I've Never Been The Straight Rapper That Is Going To Stand In A Cipher And Battle All Day. I Started Off Battle Rapping, But To Me, Making Songs Became More Important Than Freestyles... I've Met Many Rappers Who Can Freestyle But Can't Make A Record.

I Do Feel Like I Have A Direct Connection With God For Some Reason; Always Have Since I Was A Little Kid - I Would Talk To God, Talk To The Sky.

If There Are Kids Who Want To Follow In My Footsteps, I'd Say That My Shoes Are Too Big For Them To Fill! But Their Shoe Size Is Just Perfect.

The Good Thing About Movies Is That They're Subjective. You Can Connect To Different Themes Depending On Your Own Perspective.

It's Not Always Easy To Do The Right Thing. But, Doing The Right Thing Makes You Strong, It Builds Character.

There Were Musicians That Influenced Me, But They Weren't All Women. Teena Marie Was A Big Influence Because She Wrote And Produced Her Own Music, Which Let Me Know That Women Could Write And Produce Their Own Music, Which Was An Empowering Moment For Me.

I Actually Enjoy That I Never Really Needed To Be Hanging Out With Every Celebrity In Hollywood; I Just Go Home And Hang Out With My Cousins, My Best Friends. I'm Not Treated Like Royalty; They Love Me To Death, But They Don't Treat Me Like Royalty. So It's Easy For Me; They'll Tell Me The Truth, Whether It Hurts Or Not. And I Need That; I've Always Been Given That.

Racism Is Ignorant. And It's Stupid. And It's Old. And It's Played Out. So Beat It Already With That, You Know What I Mean? 'let's All Get Along' - I'm So Tired Of That Damn Sentence, But It's True.

Some People Observe Life Naturally And Sometimes You Just Have To Let Things Out And Think About It Later.

I Like To Service The Full Audience Of America, So I Try To Do Things That Are Just Real Artistic, Like When They Don't Have The Most Money, But It's A Great Piece Of Work. Then, There Are Big, Fun Comedies And Big Animated Movies For Kids. I Want To Do Things For My Nieces And Nephews. Ultimately, We're Trying To Deliver Something Entertaining To An Audience. As Long As It Can Entertain The Audience, And It Makes Me Or My Niece And Nephew Laugh Or Cry, Then I Think It's Good.

If You Can Draw Something From My Life That Helps, More Power To You.

Half The Battle Is Confidence. There Are People Who Have Great Figures But Have Terrible Confidence So You Are Not Drawn To Them Because They Seem Down All The Time.

I Feel Anger And I Feel Understanding. It's A Difficult Position To Be In.

[hiking] Is Not That Crazy, But When You Look Back And You See That Mountain You Just Climbed, You Say, "i Can't Believe I Did That."

My Mother And I Definitely Got To A Point Where We Had To Have A Real Conversation And Talk Woman To Woman, Or Daughter To Mother, Friend To Friend - Just Off The Record, Clear The Air And Communicate. I Didn't Want To Drive My Mama Crazy, But At The Same Time, I Had To Do, I Had To Learn, I Had To Grow And She Understood That. She Knows Me Better Than Anyone Else On The Planet So I Tried To Think About That.

Putting On Your Crown Is Really Like Accepting The Fact That You Are A Queen. You're A Great Woman. Wherever You Are In Life, Just Keep On That Path, And So For Me, Sometimes As Women, We Forget - We Forget That About Ourselves. So, Putting On Your Crown Is Sort Of Reminding Yourself That, Hey, I'm A Queen, And I Can Do What I Want In This Life And Take It.

I've Loved Car Racing All My Life. I Watch Nascar Regularly, And Drag Racing Because We Have Raceway Park In New Jersey. I Think I Got It From My Father.

I Don't Have To Take A Trip Around The World Or Be On A Yacht In The Mediterranean To Have Happiness. I Can Find It In The Little Things, Like Looking Out Into My Backyard And Seeing Deer In The Fields.

My Mom Has Always Been My Champion. She Was Very Smart And Grounded. She Said, 'save Your Money. Pay Your Taxes. Don't Put Everything In One Basket,' But She Let Me Explore And Be Creative.

Let Your Inner Queen's Voice Come Through Loud And Clear. Be Strong, Be Authentic, Be You, And You'll Do Her Proud.

No One Ever Got Ahead By Going Through The Motions. You Have To Constantly Be Improving Yourself. Make Your Life The Masterpiece You Want It To Be.

Improving Yourself

I Totally Want Like 18 Babies.

When You Have A Family As Big As Mine, There Are Many Things That Affect My Family Members, In Many Different Ways. It Could Be High Blood Pressure, It Could Be Cholesterol, It Could Be Obesity, It Could Be Sleep Deprivation Or Sleep Apnea. An Illness Is An Illness, Especially If It Affects Younger Kids. Illnesses Affect Your Family And They Impact You Because You Want To Do The Best You Can To Help Your Family Member Become More Healthy, Just As My Family Members Want Me To Be Healthy.

Anyone Who Knows Me Knows That I'm Way More Of A Joker Than I Am A Serious Person.

It Was A Very Vulnerable Time Going From Being Insecure About My Body And Who I Am To Becoming Comfortable With Me. I Had To Tune Out What The Hell Everybody Else Had To Say About Who I Was. When I Was Able To Do That, I Felt Free.

I Lost Relatives To Aids, A Couple Of My Closest Cousins. I Lost Friends To Aids, High-school Friends Who Never Even Made It To Their 21st Birthdays In The '80s. When It's That Close To You, You Can't Really Deny It, And You Can't Run From It.

There Is No Profession More Essential Than That Of An Educator, And It's Time For All Of Us To Embrace And Celebrate Their Importance And Contribution To America's Children.

I Didn't Know I Had It In Me. There's More To All Of Us Than We Realize. Life Is So Much Bigger, Grander, Higher, And Wider Than We Allow Ourselves To Think. We're Capable Of So Much More Than We Allow Ourselves To Believe.

My Mom Will Make Me Walk The Dogs Or Take Out The Trash When I Go Home.

You Need To Give Yourself The Time To Think Freely. I Don't Know If That Is Political. But Sometimes Things Are Political Because You Observe Things That Are Right Or That Are Wrong And You Want To Speak On Them.

I'm Thinking Wanting To Succeed Is Something In My Dna; I'm Not Like 'i've Got To Succeed,' I Just Don't Think About That... I See A Silver Lining In Everything And I See A Lesson In Everything.

You Just Have To Connect With People Who Believe In Your Vision And Who Will Work With You And Advance Your Cause.

Sometimes I Pray When I Really Feel Like I Need God To Help Me With Something, And Sometimes We Just Have Conversations. We Just Kick It.

Having A Belief In God, Being Able To Find Joy, Despite Your Circumstances Or Put Yourself Outside Of Yourself, And Stop Looking Inwards And Look Outwards A Little Bit Really Helps To Carry Through Tough Times. Giving Makes You Feel Better.

I Often Find It's Just The Confidence That Makes You Sexy, Not What Your Body Looks Like. It's How You Feel About Yourself That Makes You Sexy.

Yeah, I'm From Jersey; It's Almost Like I Was Automatically Born A Nets Fan.

For Me, It Might Sound Cliche, But Beauty For Me Really Does Start On The Inside. It's Like A State Of Mind, A State Of Love If You Will. Then, Whatever You Can Do On The Outside Is All Like A Bonus.

There's No Way I Can Represent For Everyone. I Can't Represent For All Women Or All Big Women Or All Black Women. It's Important For People Not To Make Celebrities Their Source Of Who They Should Be In Life. I Can't Take On The Pressure Of Being Perfect. Nobody Is.

I'm Proud Of Everything I Do, But I Think I'm The Most Happy About Becoming A Rapper. It Was My Entrance Into Everything. That Helped Me Get Into Acting.

I Came From A Crew, And To Me, All The Guys I Rapped With Were Better Than Me, So I Was Surprised When I Was The Breakout One. It Was Definitely A Cool Thing.

I Tend To Share Whatever I Know In General. I've Never Been A Person To Horde Information For The Sake Of My Own Skin, You Know What I Mean? Not Share So Somebody Doesn't Take Your Job, I've Never Had That Kind Of Insecurity. I Also Had A Management Company, Too, So We Were Always One Of Those Companies That Shared Information With Our Artists. Whatever They Wanted To Know, As Much As They Wanted To Know, They Could Know.

My Mother Wouldn't Allow Me To Speak Slang When I Was Growing Up. But When I Got Outside, Around My Friends, It Was 'yo' And 'that's The Joint' And 'yo, What's Up?' So I Had My Game For My Friends And My Game For My Mom.

You Have To Stand For What You Believe In And Sometimes You Have To Stand Alone.

If I Ran Into A 19-year-old Version Of Myself, I'd Just Tell Her To Live, Full Out. I Might Also Tell Her To Go Ahead And Have A Few Babies And Not Worry About The Timing Of It.

Once You Realize There Is A Higher Power, You Know You're Not Alone, That You Have A Purpose On The Planet. You Control Your Destiny Instead Of Letting The Day Lead You Where It May. You Seize It, Take It And Lead It.

I Have A No-die Clause In Every Movie. The Black People Can't Be Dying All The Time.

Jumping Off That Cliff In Jamaica.it Was Years Ago. It Was At This Place Called Rick's Cafe. Actually, It Was Two Cliffs. They Were Pretty High, Probably A Good 40- 50-foot Jump Into The Ocean. That Was Crazy.

People Say I'm Going To Be The Next Oprah. But I Say No, Because Oprah Is Still Oprah. I'll Be The Next Me. I Feel Like There's Always A Lane For Me As Long As I'm True To Myself.

When I'm Wearing Too-high Heels And Swaying My Hips, I Do That Sharon Stone Kind Of Thing - She Has The Sexiest Walk, A New York Cool Thing That Throws You Back.

If My Brother And I Wanted Money In Our Pockets, We Had To Get Jobs - My First Was At 15, At Burger King.

I Think As Far As The Music Industry Is Concerned, It's Kind Of Been The Wild, Wild West In A Way With The Internet, Which Is Not Necessarily A Bad Thing To Me.

I Have To Be Realistic About What I Can And Can't Do. So Whatever I Do Has To Really Be Worth It. I Like To Master The Things I Do.

I Support Many Organizations That I Feel Are Doing The Right Thing, Like Alonzo Mourning's Foundation, Alicia Keys' Foundation, The Make-a-wish Foundation, And Other Well-established Foundations. I Kick Out A Lot Of Time And Money Wherever I Can.

I Wish Every Woman Would Love Herself And Embrace What She Was Given Naturally.

I Have Great Family And Friends That Do Not Treat Me Like Queen Latifah. We've All Grown With This Thing, They Have Sacrificed Part Of There Anonymity; They've Had To Deal With Rumors And Things In The Paper And They've Had To Take This Ride Along With Me And They've Taken It And We've Had A Good Time.

I Don’t Want To Be A Supermodel; I Want To Be A Role Model.

I Promised My Mom That If, After A Year Of Putting 150 Percent Into My Career It Didn't Work Out, I Would Go Back To School. I Never Did Go Back.

I Never Really Took Any Acting Classes. I'm Just A Natural Ham, I Guess.

I Designed My Whole Image. That Was All Me. I Just Bought Some Regular Clothes, Threw A Medallion Around My Neck, And That Was It. The Next Thing I Know, That's The Look.

I've Hosted The Soul Train Awards, The American Music Awards... And I Had My Own Talk Show. So If I Can't Host By Now, What The Hell Can I Do?

I Try To Only Commit Myself To Things That I Think I Can Accomplish And Commit Myself To 100 Percent. I Try Not To Bite Off More Than I Can Chew.

Fear Can Be Good When You're Walking Past An Alley At Night Or When You Need To Check The Locks On Your Doors Before You Go To Bed, But It's Not Good When You Have A Goal And You're Fearful Of Obstacles. We Often Get Trapped By Our Fears, But Anyone Who Has Had Success Has Failed Before.

I Don't Feel Like I Need To Share My Personal Life, And I Don't Care If People Think I'm Gay Or Not. Assume Whatever You Want. You Do It Anyway.

What Would Your Life Be Like If You Found Out You Had 3 Weeks Left? And You Know That You Had Not Begun To Live? And You Had All These Dreams And All These Possibilities. And All These Things You Wanted To Do And Things You Wanted To Say And Now Time's Up?

I Made Decisions That I Regret, And I Took Them As Learning Experiences... I'm Human, Not Perfect, Like Anybody Else.

To Me, I Always Felt Like I Was Carrying A Torch For Women Of Any Size To Be Themselves - It Doesn't Matter Whether You're A Size 2 Or A 22, Just Be Who You Are.

You Almost Have To Step Outside Yourself And Look At You As If You Were Someone Else You Really Care About And Really Want To Protect. Would You Let Someone Take Advantage Of That Person? Would You Let Someone Use That Person You Really Care About? Or Would You Speak Up For Them? If It Was Someone Else You Care About, You'd Say Something. I Know You Would. Okay, Now Put Yourself Back In That Body. That Person Is You. Stand Up And Tell 'em, "enough!

You Can Huff And Puff. But Blow Me Down? I Doubt It Kid, Or You Get Your Ass Whupped.

I Don't Have Any Regrets. If I Could Have Talked To My 19- Or 20-year-old Self, I Would Have Said, 'you're Going To Be Fine. It Ain't That Serious!'

The Reality Is, I Like Imperfection. You Take Away From The World When You're Not Yourself. Whatever Is Unique And Special About You Was Designed By God. And When You Try To Be Someone Else, We Don't Get You. Who Knows What You Would Have Contributed To The World Had You Just Been Yourself, If You Had Just Celebrated Who You Are And Just Walked Boldly?

I Never Wanted To Give Up My Power. I Wanted To Be Able To Make My Own Decisions, So That's Why I Became Involved In Management, Bottom Line.

When You're Rapping, You Do Have To Perform To A Certain Degree, But Not Every Rapper Is Necessarily A Gifted Actor.

I'm A Sucker For A Man Who Cries. It Just Gets To Me.

Business Is Fun. Controlling Your Own Destiny Is Fun. Creating An Idea And Turning It Into A Movie; Finding An Artist And Guiding Their Career And Bringing Them To Some Type Of Status - There's Joy In That.

Life's Not About Sitting At Home In Front Of The Tv Waiting For Your Life To Begin. Get Out There And Take Some Chances.

I'm Not The Type That's Going To Sit And Preach To People If They Don't Need It Just Because I've Been Around The Block A Few Times.

Life Is So Much Bigger, Grander, Higher, And Wider Than We Allow Ourselves To Think.

New Jersey Is A Great Place To Live. And We Have Given Some Of The Best Talent To The World, From Jack Nicholson, John Travolta, To Jerry Lewis To Bon Jovi To Frank Sinatra.

Two Records Put Me Over The Top With Hip-hop. One Of Them Was 'planet Rock,' And The Other Had No Lyrics - It Was Called 'numbers,' From A Group Called Kraftwerk. Every Kid In The 'hood In New York And New Jersey Was Popping, Locking, And Breaking To That Record. It Was The Hottest Track On The Street At The Time.

It's Great To Be Able To Employ People Who Other People Wouldn't Consider Viable Employees.

I Don't Care How Much Money You Have, Free Stuff Is Always A Good Thing.

The More You Push The Budgets Up, The More You Make Records Cost $20, The More You Make Records Last 4 And 5 Minutes On The Radio.

I Learned You Really Do Have To Make Sure You Enjoy Life.

I Just Like Ladies Who Have Class... Just Be Yourself And Let Your Personality Shine And Let Your Individuality Show. To Me, That's Sexier. A Confident Woman Is A Sexy Woman, In My Opinion

The Objectification Of Females Is Not A Good Thing! Not Every Rapper Does This, But When The Lyrics Focus Solely On The Strip Club, 'poppin' Bottles' And How Many Girls They Can 'tap,' It Distorts What Kids Are Learning. I Think If There Was More Of A Female Presence In Hip Hop We Could Break Up The Monotony. It's All About Balance.

There Are Two Things I Wear. One Is A Curvation Undergarment Over My Whole Body, And Then Maybe I'll Also Put On Some Spanx. They're So Great. They Have A Way Of Smoothing Everything Out, And Then You Can Just Put On Whatever You Want. It Accents You And Makes You Feel Pretty.

Even If You Don't Have Anything, Even If You've Got A Quarter In Your Pocket, To Share With Someone Else Who Has Nothing Really Helps.

People Have Often Asked Me, Do I Want To Be The Next Oprah - There Is No Such Thing. Oprah Is Oprah, And She's Still Being Oprah If Anybody Hasn't Noticed... What I Bring To Tv Is Myself... I Really Think There's Space In Daytime Tv For A Whole Bunch Of Fun, Some Amazing Music, And Some Heart.

I Love Riding, Even If It's Just My Vespa. You Just Zip And Do Your Thing. I Find There's A Different Awareness When I Ride; It Connects Me To My Senses And To God.

I Would Like - Either As An Actor, Or Producer Or Even Director - To Do Something Sci-fi Or Action-related. I Like Sci-fi, Always Have, 'star Trek' And 'star Wars' And All That Stuff.

If You're Prematurely Born Or If You Have Things Happening When You're Like A Baby Being Born. If You Have To Learn How To Walk Right Or If There's Something Wrong With Your Gait Or Just Physical Things That Are Happening. Illnesses Affect Your Family And They Impact You Because You Want To Do The Best You Can To Help Your Family Member Become More Healthy.

Award Shows, Like The Grammys, Were Tough On Us Early In Hip-hop, Not Even Televising Our Categories Or Splitting Them Up On Best Male Or Female Or Any Of That. We Had To Earn Them.

My Mom Was My Main Influence Growing Up, And Phylicia Rashad Reminded Me A Lot Of My Mother, Just The Way She Handled Certain Things, She Was... Not Soft-spoken But Smooth-spoken. Just Very Calm, Cool, Collected About Things.

When I Want To Push Myself And Do Intense Workouts, I Do That, But I'm Not Going To Do It Because Anybody Thinks I Should Look A Certain Way. It's Really More About How I Feel And About Being Healthy.

Sometimes When I Am In A Situation That I Have Never Been In, I Kind Of Pull Back A Little Bit To Observe Things; It Doesn't Really Last Long Though I Have To. I've Resigned To Myself To The Fact That I Have To Be Me.

I Often Go To Bed In My Birthday Suit. But I Like Teddies And Cute Little Undies That Match. I Like A Sexy Bra And Panty Set, Or Little Shorts.

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Martin Van Creveld

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