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We're Very Privileged As Americans - It's Easy To Forget About The Rest Of The World And To Think That Your Problems Are The Most Important Problems. Even Poor People In America Live Better Than Poor People Most Everywhere Else.

-Madonna Ciccone

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We're Very Privileged As

Madonna Ciccone

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We're Very Privileged As Americans - It's Easy To Forget About The Rest Of The World And To Think That Your Problems Are The Most Important Problems. Even Poor People In America Live Better Than Poor People Most Everywhere Else.

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Looking At My Life, It's Very Clear To Me, I Lived So Selfishly.

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In My Coming-of-age Time, There Was No Internet, No Social Networking, Nothing. It Was Just Show After Show, Hoping One Day Somebody Would Notice You.

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I Was Used To Dancing, But Only When Someone Told You What To Do. So In The Nightclub I Was All Over The Place, I Combined Everything. Street Dance, Modern Dance, A Bit Of Jazz And Ballet, I Was Twyla Tharp, I Was Alvin Ailey, I Was Michael Jackson. I Didn't Care, I Was Free.

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I've Studied Kabbalah, As You Know, For Many Years, So There Are A Lot Of Things I Do That One Would Associate With Practising Judaism. I Hear The Torah Every Saturday. I Observe Shabbat. I Say Certain Prayers. My Son Was Bar Mitzvahed. So This Appears Like I'm Jewish, But These Rituals Are Connected To What I Describe As The Tree Of Life Consciousness And Have More To Do With The Idea Of Being An Israelite, Not Jewish.

Hand Fits Giving, So Do It, That's What The Gospel Said To Me. Life Fits Living, So Let Your Judgments Go.

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I Think Passive Beauties Have Their Place In The World. It's Hard For Me To Relate To That.

I Was Sacked From Dunkin' Donuts For Squirting The Donuts Jelly All Over The Customers.

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After Years And Years Of Everybody Commenting On The Way I Look And Dress And Being Photographed, One Starts To Become Self-conscious And Starts To Plan Things More. You End Up Judging Yourself More, What Looks Good And What Doesn't.

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Until I Learned To Love Myself, I Was Never Ever Lovin' Nobody Else.

You Took A Poison Arrow And You Aimed It At My Heart. It's Heavy And It's Bitter, And It's Tearing Me Apart.

I Tried To Be A Boy, I Tried To Be A Girl, I Tried To Be A Mess.

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Straight Men Need To Be Emasculated.... Every Straight Guy Should Have A Man's Tongue In His Mouth At Least Once.

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It Doesn't Matter Who You Are, It's What You Do That Takes You Far.

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And, It Seems Like A Whole New Generation Of Kids Have Discovered His Genius And Are Bringing Him To Life Again. I Hope That Wherever Michael Is Right Now He Is Smiling About This. Yes, Michael Jackson Was A Human Being But He Was A King. Long Live The King.

Fame Gets You In The Door But It Doesn't Keep You In The Room.

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Dress Like Britney Spears And Think Like Me, And Everything Will Be Fine.

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I Don't Believe There's A Certain Age Where You Can't Say And Feel And Be Who You Want To Be.

If It's Bitter At The Start, Then It's Sweeter In The End.

If We Can Elect An African American As President, We Can Support Gay Marriage! Defeat Prop 8! We Will Not Give Up!

I Worship F. Scott Fitzgerald And I Love His Writing.

Scott Fitzgerald

No Matter Who You Are, No Matter What You Did, No Matter Where You've Come From, You Can Always Change, Become A Better Version Of Yourself.

The Definition Of S & M Is Letting Someone Hurt You That You Know Would Never Hurt You.

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I Want The Good Life, But I Don't Want An Easy Ride. What I Want Is To Work For It, Feel The Blood And Sweat On My Fingertips.

I Might Be Responsible For As Many Gay Marriages As I Am For Heterosexual Divorces.

I Made A Vow That I Would Never Need Another Person Ever. Turned My Heart Into A Cage, A Victim Of A Kind Of Rage.

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If You're Going To Be An Artist, Real Life Is Your Inspiration.

I Really Want To See Everything. If It's Around Me And It's Part Of My Show, I Need To Be A Part Of All Of It. From The Creation Of The Music, To The Surface Of The Floor, To Everyone's Hairstyle, To The Details With The Buttons And The Bows And The Snaps And The Zippers. All Of Those Things!

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If You Don't Vote, You're Going To Get A Spanking.

People Don't Know What Kabbalah Is, And So They Jump To Conclusions. For Me, Studying Kabbalah Is Studying - Is Just - Is Asking Questions. And I Encourage All Of My Children To Be That Way, And I Think People Don't Understand That. And So They Make Assumptions And They Judge.

Asking Questions

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I Always Acted Like A Star Long Before I Was One.

Publicly Humiliating Someone For Your Own Gain Will Only Come And Haunt You. God's Going To Have His Revenge.

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Prince Charles Is Very Relaxed At The Table, Throwing His Salad Around Willy-nilly. I Didn't Find Him Stiff At All.

I Stand For Freedom Of Expression, Doing What You Believe In, And Going After Your Dreams.

I Like To Be Provocative.

I Am A Survivor. I Am Like A Cockroach, You Just Can't Get Rid Of Me.

I Loved Nuns When I Was Growing Up. I Thought They Were Beautiful. For Several Years I Wanted To Be A Nun. I Saw Them As Really Pure, Disciplined, Above Average People. They Had These Serene Faces. Nuns Are Sexy.

My Goal From The Very Beginning Was Just To Write Good Songs That Don't Require Any Production To Be Felt Or Understood. I Wanted To Be Able To Sit In A Room With A Guitar And Play The Song From Beginning To End And Have It Be As Impactful As If You Heard The Studio Version With All The Bells And Whistles.

My Home Base - Pop Music And The Catholic Church.

I Like To Change. A New Lamp, A Piece Of Art, Can Transform A Room.

People Love Pitting Strong Females Against Each Other.

I Don't Care If You Hate Me Or Love Me, As Long As I Make You Think.

There's One Thing You Can't Download And That's A Live Performance. And I Know How To Put On A Show, And Enjoy Performing, And I'll Always Have That.

I'd Like To Think I Am Taking People On A Journey; I Am Not Just Entertaining People, But Giving Them Something To Think About When They Leave.

I Was More Of A Dancing Kid Than A Singing Kid. I Mean, I Sang In School Choirs And I Sang In School Musicals, But I Was Much More Interested In Dancing Than Singing.

I Want To Be Like Gandhi, And Martin Luther King, And John Lennon... But I Want To Stay Alive.

I'm Not Sorry, It's Human Nature.

Rip George Michael. I Can't Believe It. Such An Incredible Singer And A Lovely Human Being, Far Too Young To Leave Us.

What Is The Big Deal About Eminem? Since When Is Offensive Language A Reason For Being Unpopular? I Like The Fact That Eminem Is Brash And Angry And Politically Incorrect. At Least He Has An Opinion. He's Stirring Things Up. He's Provoking A Discussion. He's Making People's Blood Boil. He's Reflecting What's Going On In Society Right Now. That Is What Art Is Supposed To Do.

Making Records Is Not How It Used To Be! #stillwerking

I Love The Art Form, But Working In Film Can Be A Disheartening Experience.

Being Blonde Is Definitely A Different State Of Mind. I Can't Really Put My Finger On It, But The Artifice Of Being Blonde Has Some Incredible Sort Of Sexual Connotation. Men Really Respond To It. I Love Blonde Hair But It Really Does Something Different To You. I Feel More Grounded When I Have Dark Hair, And I Feel More Ethereal When I Have Light Hair. It's Unexplainable. I Also Feel More Italian When My Hair Is Dark.

I Wanted To Know Why People Follow Rules Blindly, Or Why Girls Had To Act A Certain Way And Boys Didn't. Why Could Boys Ask Girls Out And Girls Not Ask Guys Out? Why Did Girls Have To Shave Their Legs And Guys Didn't? Why Did Society, Like, Set Everything Up The Way They Did? My Whole Adolescence Was Full Of Unanswered Whys. Because They Never Got Answered, I Just Kept Lighting Fires Everywhere - Metaphorically Speaking.

Power Is A Great Aphrodisiac And I Am A Very Powerful Person

Suffering Is A Big Informer, A Big Catalyst For Creation. You Take Your Sadness, Your Despair, Your Sense Of Injustice, And You Put It In Your Work.

I Like That You Have Four Minutes To Zero In On Something And Evoke A Specific Feeling And Take People On Some Sort Of Journey.

I Love Being A Mother. My Children Fill Me Up In Many Ways, And Inspire Me In Many Ways, But I Need A Partner In My Life And I Think Most People Feel That Way.

Just Like A Prayer, Your Voice Can Take Me There.

I Think They Were Scared Of Me Because I Was Different. I've Always Asked, 'why? Why Do I Have To Do That? Why Do I Have To Look This Way? Why Do I Have To Dress This Way? Why Do I Have To Behave This Way?'

Motherhood Was The Beginning Of My Own Journey Asking The Question, 'why Am I Here?' I Had To Stop And Think: What Am I Doing To Teach My Daughter? What Do I Believe In?

I Refuse To Act The Way Someone Expects Me To.

I Think They Probably Got It On, Jesus And Mary Magdalene.

If Those Civil Rights Groups Are Going Into Those Orphanages And Offering To Look After Those Children, Then They Have Every Right To Make A Stink About It. But They're Not. They're Not Offering A Solution.

People Hear The Soul, Black Influence In My Voice. I Grew Up Listening To Cklw And All The Black Stations Like Wlbs.

Unbelievable, George Michael Has Died At The Age Of 53. Rip.this Dreadful Year Goes On And On.so Sad, A Real Talent.

I'm Very Grateful That I Had Work To Do. I May Have Thrown Myself Off A Building.

I Like To Make People Think.

I'll Flirt With Anyone From Garbagemen To Grandmothers.

Manipulating People, That's What I'm Good At

The Thing I Love Most About Being Famous Is People Listening To Me When I Have Something Important To Say.

I'm Not Crazy About How Sort Of Homogenized Pop Music Become. It Used To Be Much More Diverse. Maybe It's Just What's Played On The Radio Sounds Very Much The Same.

I Don't Think Ultimately God Punishes. I Think We Bring About Our Own Destruction Or Our Own Creation.

Once You Start Turning Over Rocks And Reaching Out To Help People, There's A Whole Avalanche Coming Right Behind It. And It Seems Never-ending. But When You See The Fruits Of Your Labor, You Feel Like It's Possible.

I Have Great Respect For Sean Penn. It's Like Most Relationships That Fail. It's Not One Thing, It's Many Thing That Go On Over A Period Of Time.

I Hate Being Called A Pop Star. I Hate That.

I Worked For Everything That I Got And I Worked Long And Hard Before I Got To This Point So When I Got It I Thought I Deserve It.

Who Needs A Smile When A Tear's So Full Of Love?

I'm Encouraging Other People, Whether They're Professionals Or Not, To Use Their Creativity To Express Themselves, To Get A Conversation Going, To Get The Party Started, Really.

I Must Confess That I Am Usually Drawn To Sadness, And Loneliness Has Never Been A Stranger To Me. But Love Tried To Welcome Me, But My Soul Drew Back, Guilty Of Lust And Sin.

I Feel Like I've Survived So Much, And Been Through So Much. And Sometimes I Miss The Innocence Of Those Times. Life Was Different. New York Was Different. The Music Business Was Different. I Miss The Simplicity Of It, The Naivete Of Everyone Around Me.

'jesus' Message Was To Love Your Neighbour As Yourself, And There Are People In Need. I Hope That People Got That Message.

I've Slept With Prince.

Hollywood, How Can It Hurt You When It Looks So Good?

If I Have To Be The Person Who Opens The Door For Women To Believe And Understand And Embrace The Idea That They Can Be Sexual And Look Good And Be As Relevant In Their 50s Or Their 60s As They Were In Their 20s, Then So Be It.

That Consciousness Is Everything And That All Things Begin With A Thought. That We Are Responsible For Our Own Fate, We Reap What We Sow, We Get What We Give, We Pull In What We Put Out.

As Much As I Think I've Inspired People In The World, I'd Like To Be More Involved Bringing About World Peace.

I Cheat On My Books A Lot, Which Is Not A Good Thing Because It's Good To Stick With One Book And Get To The End Of It, But I'm A Book Philanderer.

I Learned A Lot About Humility And Patience, Keeping My Mouth Shut.

Humility And Patience

They're Only Words, Unless They're True.

I Have To Get Way More Vocal And Become A Little Bit Less Mysterious.

I Believe What I Practice Has To Do With Something Deeper Than Religion, That It Embodies All Religions, Including Judaism. And Christianity. And Islam.

I Am My Own Experiment. I Am My Own Work Of Art.

There Are Certain Mystical Belief Systems That Believe That Taking Pictures Takes An Aspect Of The Soul, But Beyond That It's Just The Idea That Once You're Captured In A Photograph, Then A Million Presumptions Are Made Of You, And You Are Forever Frozen In That One Moment, And You Are Perceived To Be The Embodiment Of That Moment, And That, Of Course, Is An Illusion.

In England Especially, I've Found That If You Bring Up King Edward Viii And Wallis Simpson At A Dinner Party Or A Social Gathering, It's Like Throwing A Molotov Cocktail Into The Room.

Molotov Cocktail

We're Very Privileged As Americans - It's Easy To Forget About The Rest Of The World And To Think That Your Problems Are The Most Important Problems. Even Poor People In America Live Better Than Poor People Most Everywhere Else.

You Bring Me To My Knees, While I'm Scratching Out The Eyes Of A World I Want To Conquer, And Deliver, And Despise. And Right While I Am Kneeling There, I Suddenly Begin To Care. And Understand That There Could Be A Person That Loves Me.

I Would Like To See The Pope Wearing My T-shirt.

Trying To Be A Professional Dancer, Paying My Rent By Posing Nude For Art Classes, Staring At People Staring At Me Naked. Daring Them To Think Of Me As Anything But A Form They Were Trying To Capture With Their Pencils And Charcoal. I Was Defiant. Hell-bent On Surviving. On Making It. But It Was Hard And It Was Lonely, And I Had To Dare Myself Every Day To Keep Going.

To Me Punk Rock Is Thinking Outside Of The Box, Outside Of The Program, Outside The Establishment.

I Keep Telling Everyone That I Want To Start A Revolution But No One Is Taking Me Seriously. If I Had Black Skin And An Afro, Would You Take Me Seriously? If I Was An Arab Waving A Hand Grenade, Would You Take Me Seriously?

The End Of A Long Week With Viking Leader Aka Dj Virgo Aka Avicii! So Many Great Songs! #icantwait #revolution

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