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You Can Hate Me. You Can Go Out There And Say Anything You Want About Me, But You Will Love Me Later Because I Told You The Truth.

-Mary J. Blige

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You Can Hate Me.

Mary J. Blige

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You Can Hate Me. You Can Go Out There And Say Anything You Want About Me, But You Will Love Me Later Because I Told You The Truth.

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Don't Go A Full Day Or Night Without Washing Your Face. You Have To Get All The Dirt And Makeup Out Of Your Pores.

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People In My Neighborhood Inspired Me To Sing. Believe In Your Ability No Matter What, But Be Realistic With Yourself And Your Ability.

I Like Hanging Out With Me, And I've Accepted Everything About Me Good, Bad Whatever It Is. That's Why I'm Able To, That's Why No One Can Tell Me Anything Negative About Myself.

My Responsibility To God Is To Live. That's The Gift He Gave Me. What I Do With It Is Up To Me.

When You're Going To Do Whatever You're Going To Do, You Have To Get Your, Put Your Mind Into It.

If We Didn't Have Understanding Of Our Journey, We Wouldn't Be Able To Go On. We'd Be Stuck, Like, 'why Me?'

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I Don't Think I'll Do Foster Care Or Adopt, To Be Quite Honest.

I Remember A Time When All My Fans Were Crying And Sad And Going Through Hell. Now, We're Trying To Uplift Each Other And Accept Ourselves For Who We Are, Even If Nobody Else Does.

I Wish I Had An Extra Day With My Mom Sometimes. Or Another Hour In The Day With My Family, Husband And Children.

In The Inner City, There's A Mentality That The Government Owes You Something. My Breakthrough Came When I Stopped Feeling Sorry For Myself And Took Responsibility For Every Part Of My Life. No More Pity Parties. I've Gotta Love Me More Than Anybody Else Loves Me.

I Was Inspired To Create 'my Life' So I Could Finally Share A Personal Part Of My Life Beyond My Music.

From Being A Little Girl In The Projects, Going Through All Of The Mess That I Was Going Through, To Ending Up At The Inauguration For The First African-american President, I'm Speechless Right Now Because I Never Thought I'd - I Never Ever - I Couldn't Even See That Far. Even When I Ended Up In The Music Business I Couldn't See That.

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You Either Learn From Your Experiences Or Go Back And Do The Same Thing, And I Learned From My Experiences.

I’ve Done Well, I’ve Been Disappointed, And I Think It All Goes Back To You. Of Course The Labels Are Going To Be The Labels. It’s The Music Business. You Are A Business. That’s What They Do. So You’ve Got To Protect Yourself.

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By The Time I Was A Teenager, When I Went Outside The House, It Was About Hip-hop All The Time. Nothing But Hip-hop, Block Parties.

It Hurts When You Have To Smile And You Don't Want To Smile, But The Best Thing To Do Is To Smile.

I Believe There Are Certain Things That God Uses To Get Us Out Of A Bad Situation, And I Believe Music Was One Of The Things He Used For Me.

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When You Tell Your Truth, You Are Coming From A Real Place, So You Are Automatically A Leader.

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You Can Hate Me. You Can Go Out There And Say Anything You Want About Me, But You Will Love Me Later Because I Told You The Truth.

'my Life' Is Not An Autobiography. It's Just Music.

I Used To Think I Was Ugly. I Thought I Looked Like A Camel. A Person Who Doesn't Love Themselves, They Will See Anything That Pops Up On Their Face. I've Seen Squirrels, I've Seen A Bird, And I've Seen All Kinds Of Animals On My Face. But That Is The Result Of Self-hate. I've Learned To Say: 'you Know What? I Am A Beautiful Black Woman'.

Cause I'm No Better Than You, You, Or You. And I Can't Get On No Throne And Preach, 'cause I'm Not God.

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There Are People Out There Who Want To Provoke Me And Bring Back The Old Mary But I'm Not Giving Them The Satisfaction.

There's So Many Things That Life Is, And No Matter How Many Breakthroughs, Trials Will Exist And We're Going To Get Through It. Just Be Strong.

I'm A Child Of God. God Is My Mommy, My Daddy. That's The Only Thing That'll Keep My Head Up. If I Don't Remember Who I Am In Him, I'm Done.

Love Is Wonderful, Amazing, And The Best Thing That Can Happen To Us.

I Like To Do Interior Design, I Love To Quilt, I Love To See Different Colors Together, And I Love To Match Things Up.

So As Long As I'm A Human Being And I'm Not Perfect, I'm Able To Say I'm Having Some Growing Pains. Because In Order To Sustain Where You Are Once You Made Such A Breakthrough That Everyone Is Looking At You, Now Everyone Is Like, 'ooh, Is She Gonna Make A Mistake?' Yes, I'm Going To Make A Mistake. Yes, I'm Still Gonna Do Things.

I Decided To Start My Own Label Because So Many People With Talent Come To Me Wanting To Know How They Can Get In The Music Business.

I Believe There Should Be No More Drama, But It's Everywhere You Go. It's Just About How You Get Out. You've Gotta Bob And Weave Because It's Everywhere. How Do I Keep The Drama Low? It's About Using Your Head.

You Demand Respect And You'll Get It. First Of All, You Give Respect.

I Believe That Anything Man Himself Can Do For Me, God Can Do For Me In A Greater Way. I Decided To Pray And To Seek God On My Own. I Just Stayed In The Word. And It Worked.

I Cannot Save The World, That's Not What I'm Trying To Do. I Guess I'm Just Trying To Walk The Walk And Be An Example To Those That Want It. Not Everybody Does, But If Mary J Blige Can Come Out Of That Same Hole You Were In, Then You Can Do It Too - That's My Goal: To Do That Without Saying It, But Actually Live It.

The Only Person That I'm Really Feeling - Because She Has An Identity Of Her Own, Even Though She Has Listened To Mary J. Blige - Is Jill Scott.

When Life Is Real, It's Not Going To Be Smooth.

Just Don't Let The Hype Of What People Are Saying And How Much They Love You, Y'know, Just Take The Compliment And Be Thankful That People Are Complimenting You, But Don't Let It Consume You; Don't Let Your Circumstances Around You And The Way People View You Make You Act A Certain Way.

It's Ok Showing Yourself Some Love.

We Are All Spirits. We Get Depressed. But Music Makes You Want To Live. I Know My Music Has Saved My Life.

I Mean, I Know My Heart Is Not Clean, And Your Heart Is Not Clean, And None Of Our Urban Hearts Are Clean. But You Can Be Washed Again.

When I`m Going To Do A Christmas Album I Had To Put My Mind In Christmas Mode. I Had To Go Back To Being A Child And Remembering All Of That. When I Go To Do A Project, I'm Serious About It, So I Wrap My World Around It, And It Becomes Christmastime For Me And I'm Singing Songs Like It's Christmas Day.

I'm From The Element Of The Streets That Says That Once You've Made It, It's Yours. But Keep It To Yourself.

When I Was A Kid, I Needed To Sing Because It Makes Me Feel Good About Myself. It Makes Me Feel Good, Period.

This Music Business Can Suck All The Love Out Of You, All The Compassion For People - You Can Start To Think You're Better Than Them. But I Want To Continue To Let People Know That I'm No Better And No Worse, I'm Just Like You.

It Hurts A Lot When You Cannot Really Comprehend What A Person Is Saying In A Meeting, Or You Don't Even Understand What You're Reading In Your Contract.

I Think Women Should Band Together To Get Us More Respect In All The Businesses That We're In Because, You Know, If We Turn 40, We're Nothing And Nobody. We All Should Band Together And Just Say We're Not Gonna Go Down Like That.

I Have To Have Lemon And Honey. I Have To Have Apple Cider Vinegar, Braggs. And I Have To Have Either Red Vines Or Twizzlers. These Things, You Know, Are The Things That Help My Vocal Performance.

God Loves Me And Sent His Son To Die For Me So I Have To Live To Please Him Because He Saved Me When Everyone Abandoned Me.

I'm Searching For A Real Love.

I Still Get Nervous About Singing. I Drink Tea With Honey And Lemon Before Every Concert. And I Need To Have Scented Candles In All Of My Hotel Rooms.

Sometimes I Frown And I Don't Realise It.

I've Just Been Growing Right Along. It's Painful, But It's A Great Pain, And I Like Suffering For Great Results. It's Like Going To The Gym. It Hurts Really Bad At First, But After A Couple Of Months And After That Diet, You're Looking So Hot.

As Far As Men Go, They Never Gave Me A Chance To Be Me; They Were Always Scared That Somebody Was Going To Take Me.

We Are All Just A Work In Progress.

Work In Progress

When Someone Comes Up To Me And Says, 'mary, You Helped Save My Marriage', Or, 'mary, You Helped Me Get Out Of This Abusive Relationship', I'm In It, Really In Their Lives. And I'm So Passionate About My Feelings, But Also About Showing People The Way Through Theirs.

I Started Speaking About What I Was Dealing With Through My Music, And 4 Million Women Responded And Said, 'us Too, Mary.' And I Didn't Know That Everyone Was Hurting Like I Was Hurting. I Had No Idea.

In The Studio You Can Really Concentrate On Performing The Song Where As On Stage You Also Have To Worry About Connecting With So Many People, They're Definitely Different.

As A Kid, I Was In Love With Michael Jackson, And I Just Knew I Was Going To Marry Him Someday.

Nowadays, With The State Of The Music Business, For Any Artist, Whether You're Up-and-coming Or You've Been In It For Awhile, You Have To Explore Different Revenues And Different Ways Of Expressing Yourself.

It's Not Just Songs And Glamour. It's Sweat, Blood, Broken Toes, And Mistakes... It's Life.

I Don't Listen To People's Opinions. I Have People Around Me Who I Can Trust, But Most Of All I Listen To Myself.

I'm A Singer Who Thinks Like A Rapper.

My Main Exercise Is Cardio. The Treadmill Is Fine, But Running Outdoors Gives Me The Best Results. I Try To Log 6 To 8 Miles A Week. I Could Be In The Worst Mood, But When I Do My Cardio, I Feel Much, Much Better.

One Day I Realized That I Wasn't Getting Anywhere By Blaming Other People For My Circumstances. I Finally Understood: Even If You Feel Someone Has Wronged You Or Owes You Something, No One Is Going To Give You Anything For Free.

I Blame My Mother For Nothing, But Forgive Her For Everything.

When I Was A Child I Didn't Care About Getting An Education, And I Didn't Finish High School.

In Your Life There's Peaks And Valleys And Sometimes We Regress, And We Don't Even Know We Regress. You Just Have To Learn How To Accept All Of Your Mistakes And Learn To Love Yourself Again.

As A Kid, I Dreamed About Being Onstage.

I've Been A Tomboy My Whole Life. But Then You Get Older, You Get Married, You Soften Up.

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