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You Have To Identify What You Care About And Why You Care About It. It Has To Be Personal. It Has To Be Something That Fires You Up Or Means Something To You, Or It's Not Going To Drive You.

-Alicia Keys

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You Have To Identify

Alicia Keys

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You Have To Identify What You Care About And Why You Care About It. It Has To Be Personal. It Has To Be Something That Fires You Up Or Means Something To You, Or It's Not Going To Drive You.

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Being Different

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The End Of The Day

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Cause I Am A Superwoman, Yes I Am, Yes She Is, Even When I'm A Mess, I Still Put On A Vest, With An S On My Chest, Oh Yes, I'm A Superwoman, ... And All My Sisters, Coming Together, Say Yes I Will, Yes I Can

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Live In The Moment

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And Im Happy That Im Not Super Skinny.

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If I Know Everything Around The Situation, All The Facts, I Feel Like I Can Handle Just About Anything.

You Have To Identify What You Care About And Why You Care About It. It Has To Be Personal. It Has To Be Something That Fires You Up Or Means Something To You, Or It's Not Going To Drive You.

The Desire To Play Has Always Been In Me. I Remember My First Experience At About Four Or Five Of Really Dying To Sing And Dying To Play That Came From No One Telling Me To Do So.

I Grew Up Around The Theatre. My Mother Is An Actress. I Would Fall Asleep On Tons Of Theatre Chairs. It's In My Blood; It's In My Spirit And My Fabric Of Who I Am.

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It's The Unknown That Makes Me Feel The Most Vulnerable.

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I Feel Like The Majority Of The Fear That I Had Or That We Have We Hold From Other People. They're Like People That We Trust; They're Their Fears. All Of A Sudden We Think That They're Our Fears.

Listening To Great Music And Art Inspires Me And Recharges Me.

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Risk The Fall To Know How It Feels To Fly.

I'm Not Ashamed Of What I Am And That I Have Curves And That I'm Thick. I Like My Body.

How Terrible Would It Have Been If I Had Come Out With Some Watered-down Version Of Who I Am? People Fell In Love With The Real Me, And I Still Feel Blessed That That Was How The Journey Began.

If I Can Remain Excited About The Music That I'm Giving You, Then You're Damn Sure Going To Be Excited About It.

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I Was Always Amazed The Way People Would Come In Looking One Way And Transform Completely To The Point Where I Couldn't Recognize Their Language, Their Accent, The Way They Looked, Their Hair, Their Face Even Changed Becoming So Inside Of The Character.

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It's Important For Everyone - Working Moms Especially - To Find Moments To Ground Themselves And Connect With Their Own Breath.

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My Mixed-race Background Made Me A Broad Person, Able To Relate To Different Cultures. But Any Woman Of Colour, Even A Mixed Colour, Is Seen As Black In America. So That's How I Regard Myself.

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If I Didn't Love It, I Would Not Record It.

Sometimes I Feel Good, At Times I Feel Used. Loving You Darling, Makes Me So Confused.

I Really Appreciate Frank Ocean's Lyrical Style, I Appreciate The Way That He Can Kind Of Draw You Into This Personal Space, But It's Still Lyrical. It's Almost Poetic, In A Way, But It's Very Personal At The Same Time.

The Energy Of The Crowd Fuels Something New Inside. It Reminds Me To Live In The Moment.

Live In The Moment

I Grew Up In A Pretty Tough Neighborhood. I Grew Up Around Drugs, Alcohol, Prostitution, I Grew Up Around Everything, And I Think Part Of Seeing That From Really Young Has Made Me Really Steer Very Far Away From It In All Of Its Forms.

I've Met Many Young Women Who Are Hiv Positive And Courageously Fighting The Disease. Their Determination To Live A Full Life And See Their Children Live In A Better World Is Deeply Inspiring To Me.

I Don't Think Even When You Find A Person, You Can Be Completely Honest, Ever. There's Still Pieces Of You That You Don't Give Away. I Do Believe You Always Need That Place Where It's Just You, Your Thoughts, No One Else's Judgment Or Anything.

I Don't Know If I'd Go With An Alien To Space. I Would Have To Feel The Alien's Vibe. I'm A Vibe Person.

I Think We Deserve People Who Really, Really Love Us.

I Feel Alive In Quiet Moments With My Son, Riding Our Bikes Or Watching Him Line His Trains Up In A Particular Order, Witnessing How His Mind Works, Hearing Him Learn A New Word. I'm Alive In These Special Moments Because I Never Knew A Love Like This.

No One Will Take Care Of You If You Don't Take Care Of Yourself.

Take Care Of Yourself

I Think What Happens In The World, And I Think It's Part Human Nature And Part Programming, Is We Become An Emulation Of What We See. We Become Clones Of Each Other.

I Definitely Want To Act, But I Also Want To Score Movies, And I Have This Idea To Fuse Classical Music With Other Styles That Would Give It A Different Perception.

I Have My Mother Who Is An Irish-italian, And My Father Who Is African, So I Have The Taste Buds Of An Italian And The Spice Of An African.

When I First Started Getting Into The Business, A Young Woman In A Music Game That Was Mostly Men, I Did Feel Inadequate.

Moments Are So Fleeting; I Want To Hold On To The Good Ones. When I Am Truly Present, I Feel Alive, And I Want Everyone Around Me To Share That Feeling So We Can Make The Most Of That Moment Together.

I Can Do What I Want To Do, Lucky Me. But When These People Are Coming At Me And Asking These Things, They Don't Really Care About Me. And I Have Felt Like There Were All These People Who Just Wanted To Use Me.

The Artists Who Have Inspired Me The Most In My Life Are The Ones Who Have Really Had Something To Say And Stand Up For. That, To Me, Is Part Of Being An Artist-having The Voice To Express Things That Need To Be Verbalized And Brought To Light. Unfortunately, I Don't Think That's A Priority For People, Because The Few Artists Who Do Have The Nerve To Take A Stand For What They Believe Get Shut Down In A Way.

I Grew Up In A Pretty Tough Neighborhood.

The Most Important Thing To Remember Is That You Can Wear All The Greatest Clothes And All The Greatest Shoes, But You’ve Got To Have A Good Spirit On The Inside. That’s What’s Really Going To Make You Look Like You’re Ready To Rock The World.

Inspirational Life

You Don't Know What Will Happen From One Minute To The Next.

I Feel More Like I'm A Person Who Has So Much To Offer In Different Capacities That It Would Be A Danger For Me Not To Give Myself A Chance To Spread My Wings In All Different Directions.

When I Really Need It, Talking Is The Best Way To Deal With Emotional Pain.

I Just Wanted To Be Who I Was, Which Was Like So Many Other Girls I Knew. We Grew Up In The City, Had A Hard Edge And Obstacles To Overcome, But We Were Still Young And Beautiful. I Didn't Want To Be All Dressed Up, All Made Up - I Wanted To Be Myself, Which Hadn't Been Done Before.

A Good Friend Of Mine Told Me You Should Take A Break And You Should Go See The World. Go Somewhere. That Is When I Chose To Go To Egypt, And So I Took This Beautiful Trip To Egypt. It Was The First Time Ever In My Whole Life I Took Three Weeks Off, And I Sailed Down The Nile And I Saw The Tombs And The Temples, And I Experienced A Place That Was So Magical And So Incredibly Powerful And Intelligent And Inspiring.

My Mother Was Raised Very, Very Strict Catholic In The Midwest. There Was So Much Fear And Intimidation [in The Faith]. So, Growing Up, I Was Always Looking For My Connection. I've Found Myself Praying Before Meals, Before Bed; There's Always Been This Gratitude For Things That Are Bigger Than Me.

We Listen So Much To Everybody - More Than Ever, Because We Have A Kabillion Voices Whose Opinion We Can Access - And We Care So Much If Everybody Agrees With Us. To Bust Through All Of The Noise Is Very Challenging.

When I Was First Learning Songs, I'd Have A Favorite Song, And I'd Take The Chords And Twist Them Around. I'd Learn The Chords And Then Play Them Backward. That Was My First Experimenting With Writing A Song.

All Women Are Naturally, Bad Ass!

The Climate Of Today Is Not Really Focused As Much As It Was Then On Being Able To Speak About Different Cultural Issues Or Different Situations That Were Going On Politically.

I Think There Was Something About Being In A Tough Environment That Gave Me A Certain Drive.

Love Will Come Find You, Just To Remind You Of Who You Are.

I Think There's An Energy About Just Remaining Excited. Like, You Can't Be Excited When You're Not Doing Something New.

I Lived With My Mom In A Really Small Apartment. My Bedroom Was Like In The Living Room. That's Why I Still Love To Sleep On Couches Now.

I've Learned That One Of My Greatest Secrets Is Scheduling Downtime Into A Busy Schedule. This Gives Me The Time To Have Quality Moments With My Husband And Son, Who Both Recharge My Spirit In Ways I Never Imagined.

How Far You Go Depends On What You Want For Yourself, How Much You're Willing To Leave On The Floor, And How Much You Wanna Face The Fears You Have Inside Of You. It's Everything We're All Dealing With Every Day.

I Think Being Really Connected To A Higher Power, Of Having A Spirituality To Me, Has Been Really Good For Me And I Pray All The Time.

I'm A Very Positive Person, But This Whole Concept Of Having To Always Be Nice, Always Smiling, Always Happy, That's Not Real. It Was Like I Was Wearing A Mask. I Was Becoming This Perfectly Chiselled Sculpture, And That Was Bad. That Took A Long Time To Understand.

You're At Your Most Purest, Most Innocent, Pure State When You're Doing Something You've Never Done Before. You're Scared A Little, You're A Little Vulnerable, You're Kind Of Trying, And Then You're Also Better, Because You're Trying Harder Than You Maybe Would Try.

I Don't Have A Ton Of Friends, But The Friends I Have Are Great Ones. I Don't Have Huge Family, But The Family I Have Is A Great One.

My Music Comes From Many, Many, Many Places. My Emotions, My Feelings, My Thoughts, And Conversations I Have With People I Know Who Influence Me.

I Am Able To Hang With The Hardest, The Baddest, The Worst, And I'm Able To Hang With The Most Proper And Be At Ease. I'm Able To Hang With Any Skin Colour, Any Belief. I Just Fit In Everywhere.

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