Alicia Keys Quotes (Best Sayings & Song Quotes)

I'm inspired by artists and musicians. There are so many wonderful and talented people in the world. I love discovering new music, new writers, or new art.

What breaks my heart is suffering of any kind. Too often, our world is divisive and cruel where it needs to be uniting and loving.

Everything you want to be, you already are. You're simply on the path to discovering it.

I grew up in the theater, my mother is an actress, I was always around the world of acting and theater.

I look forward to my first visit to Israel. Music is a universal language that is meant to unify audiences in peace and love, and that is the spirit of our show.

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.

Things can be really empty in this world, and I don't just mean the music world. It can become a very meaningless place if you don't really understand: 'who am I? Why am I here? What am I doing?' To feel fulfilment and have a deeper level of understanding, personally, that is the most important thing.

I've learned that while I'd be a fool not to stay open to the advice and experiences of the smart, amazing people in my life, I also need to listen to what I have to say.

I think I grew up really fast; I grew up in this really fast-paced business, and I never understood what it meant to take a break or take time off or recover, and I paid for it.

The last thing I want is to walk into my house after a long day and see all the Grammys and awards. It would make me feel weird.

I was worried that one day, 40 years from now, I would look back and wouldn't be able to remember the details of my life, so I've written them all down.

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.

You're stronger, and you're better, and you're ready for whatever.

I promised myself that I'd never actually admit to listening to 'New Kids on the Block.'

Something I've learned from people like U2, the Stones and Lenny Kravitz is that the grind of live shows is so necessary [to build your career].

I'm in constant pursuit of growing and evolving.

When I perform in front of large audiences, I'm much more comfortable, because I've already performed in front of tiny audiences - which is much harder, honestly. The smaller you strip things down, the more you depend on the songs and yourself, as opposed to arrangements.

We're all going to change. Otherwise, it's boring.

My mom is definitely my rock.

I'm not ashamed of what I am and that I have curves and that I'm thick. I like my body.

I believe in the limitlessness of humans. We're capable of incredible things. At times, that realization is frightening.

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.

When I had nothing else, I had my mother and the piano. And you know what? They were all I needed.

I think you are who you are, and your kids will see who you are. So you'd better be a good person, because they are going to see it, and that's going to shape them. They are going to become you.

I've stepped more into my womanhood, I'm a mother now, I'm having a beautiful relationship as a wife and as a friend.

I was tired and I had overworked myself and burnt myself out. So I went to Egypt by myself. When I saw what was built there, it made me understand how powerful we are, that we can create anything. And I felt like I needed to create things that were timeless too.

Once people see this 'Unplugged,' I just want them to feel the spontaneity, to feel passionate... I want you to see another side of me, that's free, and feel where my head is, where whatever happens, happens. I want you to feel inspired.

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.

I always want to stay focused on who I am, even as I'm discovering who I am.

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.

Not because I'm trying to be fabulous, but I love those big crazy Jackie O shades.

I want to continue to produce film, television, and theater, and to make the most amazing music that I've made in my life.

I know people who've gone to jail. It don't mean you stop loving them! They deservin' love just as much in there, and maybe they needin' it more.

A lot of times I watch TV and I watch film and there's so many things I'd love to talk about that I feel don't get the opportunity to be shown. Sometimes things become very stereotypical and one-sided, and I feel like it's such a colorful world.

For me, doing a show, the excitement of singing live, and the possibility that you're not gonna be perfect - that's the thrill of it.

I would hate to make music and people love me for something that isn't me.

I've always valued the input of the people I love. So in the past, whenever I'd make a decision - what to wear to an event, whether to pursue a job opportunity - I'd consult those closest to me, like my mother, husband, or manager.

There's something so powerful about being my own gorgeous, beautiful, individual, unique self.

If I didn't love it, I would not record it.

I really like to live my life in a low-key fashion.

The element of fire to me is very powerful because of what it symbolizes, how it symbolizes a strength. It symbolizes something that's unstoppable. You can't get through it, you know.

Mozart would play a counterpart with his left hand while using his right to mock it. It was blue, dark, shadowy - and it made me feel something. That's when I realized music was inside me.

I'm very happy with my body.

When I was younger, studying classical music, I really had to put in the time. Three hours a day is not even nice - you have to put in six.

I'd rather not have anything than be a liar.

Music is funny. I shouldn't even ever talk about music, because you can have all the ideas in your head, and it never goes exactly the way that you think it's gonna go.

I love my own music.

When I was a kid, I'd practise Chopin on piano - and I love Chopin! He's my dawg! Then I'd go out on the stoop and blast the radio. I'm from New York, the concrete jungle. Hip-hop influenced me from day one.

I grew up in the middle of everything. I walked the streets alone, I rode the trains alone, I came home at three in the morning alone; that was what I did.

A Minor is one of my all-time favorite keys to play in. It's a very moody key, and also 'A' is the first letter of my name. It just represents the songs through my eyes.

Love is accepting people for who they are and what they are, regardless.

Some of the greatest artists did their best work when they got political.

Soul music is timeless.

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.

Your life can become the background for the art you create.

I fell in love with the piano. I knew it was me. I was dying to play.

If I want to be alone, some place I can write, I can read, I can pray, I can cry, I can do whatever I want - I go to the bathroom.

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.

Be driven, be focused, but enjoy every moment, because it only happens once.

I don't dream - only if I'm uncomfortable or I'm going through something.

Failure isn't an option. I've erased the word 'fear' from my vocabulary, and I think when you erase fear, you can't fail.

I've always been strong-minded, but I wonder.

You've got to love what's yours.

Life is going to be a constant peeling back of layers, a constant unlearning of what we've been taught or believe to be true. I think that I've come to terms with the fact that that's just going to happen for the whole duration of my life. I feel really good about being able to look myself in the face and say, "Oh, who are you now?" And that might change.

Fear is not a part of my vocabulary, actually, and I think that it's really made me a much smarter, braver for sure, person.

Simplicity makes me happy.

The more you know the stronger you become, the closer you feel to yourself and the farther you can go.

Adam Levine and I remade the Rolling Stones' classic Wild Horses, and it is right up my alley, that whole style. It has a style of its own but still stays very true to the classic arrangement, and I love it.

Business can change you, and chew you up, and spit you out, and be rid of you, and on to the next thing. That's why it's so important to know who you are and stand up for something.

There's too much darkness in the world. Everywhere you turn, someone is tryin' to tear someone down in some way; everywhere you go, there's a feeling of inadequacy, or a feeling that you're not good enough. I want to bring a certain light to the world.

I love the written word so much, I know it's gonna flow naturally.

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.

Create the world you want, and fill it with the opportunities that matter to you.

I dream about speaking in big forums about issues that need to be spoken about. I dream about helping others who I know and love, helping them realize their dreams. I dream about being able to express myself through acting and writing, definitely. I dream about bringing more realism into the world. Sometimes I just feel like certain things are so glossed over and covered up and swept under the rug and I just want to bring them out.

My parents weren't married. It wasn't like my dad up and left. I maintained a steady relationship with my grandparents. My dad's mother is my nana, and I'm closer to her than almost anybody in this world.

My mom always said, 'Don't date a guy who thinks he's prettier than you.'

I find myself to be truly primal and passionate. Everything I do comes from a primal place.

I have big everything on the bottom, but I love my legs. You've got to love what's yours.

Most times, your blessings are also your curses. And for me, I have this ability to express myself so clearly with pen and paper, but when it comes to expressing myself verbally, I put up a big wall.

It's when we become afraid of everything and worried about everything that you are never going to reach your highest potential.

People don't expect me to be as funny as I am.

I'm the cofounder of Keep a Child Alive. We provide medicine for families affected by HIV and AIDS in places like Africa and India.

I feel like B sides are always better, no matter whose record it is.

But when I first fell in love with the piano, I knew it was me. I was dying to play.

I have this vintage Harley-Davidson motorcycle jacket. When I put it on, it has this supercool feeling to it.

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.

My mother is an actress, and she used to drag me from theater to theater and reading to reading.

I love my heritage! 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.

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.

I'm a very caring person.

All of us are different. That's what makes us interesting and special. I don't want to be anything like another person. I want to be totally myself and go against the grain, forge my own path. I've learned that being different is what makes you stand out. It makes everything so much more intriguing.

When I first started getting into the business, a young woman in a music game that was mostly men, I did feel inadequate.

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.

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 believe if you can find something to give back to, your soul will feel fulfilled in a very powerful way.

I'd rather believe in my own choice and see it all go wrong than do something I'm not fully convinced of and later feel guilty about it.

When I was younger, my mother and I, we'd have these crazy, crazy fights. Everyone would storm out mad, and the only way that I'd be able to express myself was to write her. We would write letters back and forth for days. When I'm writing, I feel uninterrupted. I write what I'm going through and how I see it.

I grew up in a pretty tough neighborhood.

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.

I feel the presence of a higher power. I believe that what you give is what you get. It's universal law. I believe in the power of prayer and of words. I've learned that when you predict that negative things will happen, they do.

From the beginning, I've had to juggle and weigh the silly things people say - and I've learnt that they're meaningless, and they're mostly inaccurate. So I don't worry about it, because there's nothin' for me to deal with.

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.

As a lyricist, you love to hear other great lyrics or other great concepts.

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.

We are all one. We're not as separate as we oftentimes think.

What acting does bring that music doesn't bring for me is the opportunity is the opportunity to be completely different in every way from whom you normally are, the person that you are when you wake up in the morning is who you are in your life. But to take that and have the opportunity to be the complete opposite of that, is the excitement of it.

Still when I'm a mess I still put on a vest With an 'S' on my chest Oh yes, I'm a Superwoman

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.

I pray to give thanks and to recognize all the good things that are in my life even during times of great change, confusion, or frustration.

It's not until I hear songs that I've done, that I realize how much of an inspiration music from the '60s and '70s has been.

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.

Sometimes you need to start again, in order to fly

I love Bono. I really respect what he has done for Africa and how he has used his fame to do good in the world. I hope I can do half as much in my life.

We have the potential to help people out of poverty, out of disease, out of slavery and out of conflict. Too often, we turn the other way because we think there's nothing we can do.

When I'm on stage, my interaction with the audience is something that really makes me come alive. It's a feeling like no other. The energy of the crowd fuels something new inside.

Stevie Wonder's records introduced me to '70s soul when I was 12 or 13.

I love children and I love family and I love that interaction. Because I had a really close relationship with my mother, I understand that deep powerful love, and it's so beautiful. To be a mother to a child is the most brilliant gift; it's gorgeous.

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.

Maturity and experience are part of my liberation.

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.

To be able to help a 13-year-old kid from the Bronx follow her dreams just by letting her know she's not forgotten in this crazy world - that's why I got involved with Frum Tha Ground Up.

When you're talented, you're talented.

I love my legs.

And I love kick boxing. It's a lot of fun. It gives you a lot of confidence when you can kick somebody in the head.

I see what happens when one gets very attached to material things. That's just not what my life is.

You can't really compare people. That's one of the biggest lessons I've learned, because comparing yourself to someone else really stops you from being who you are.

Sometimes I've gotten photographs back and people have literally shaven off pieces of me, and I tell them to put it back.

Love is giving of yourself in a way that is free of fear.

If we took the time to learn more about different places and people, perhaps we would have more empathy for 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 do feel like I owe something, but not to the industry. When you say "industry," I think of a group of people who don't really care much about you and treat you as a commodity. So, in that regard, I don't feel like I owe anything. But the people who've always been supportive of me and have always seen me for my greatest potential-those are the people who I feel like I owe something to. I feel like I am their voice. I owe it them to represent them in a way that they can be proud of.

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.

Here's my pet peeve: The not-so-unstated rule that all women are only to be treated as sexual objects and gawked at-you know, sitting up against a car, washing something, bending over, licking something. That just drives me crazy.

I have solid decent people around me, and I believe that is all it is, because you will get destroyed if you have people bringing you down.

I've always been very private, maybe because I discovered my mother, who is a wonderful lady, is very emotional.

I've stepped more into my business and really... taken control for how I want that to be.

At the end of the day, so many things that we hold so much value with, it just doesn't even mean anything. I really try to stay focused on being really positive.

Risk the fall to know how it feels to fly.

I believe Aids is the most important issue we face, because how we treat the poor is a reflection of who we are as a people.