Quotes by Alicia Keys

Simplicity makes me happy.

I love my legs.

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

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

I play Beethoven and Bach. At the same
time, Biggie is my dog.

I'm inspired by many of my friends, colleagues, and the extraordinary people I've been fortunate enough to meet along the way.

Everybody goes through their life in different ways. I definitely am having my journey. It evolves and changes. At some moments, I feel totally off center and trying to find my way back.

I'm committed to evolving and growing and sitting at the head of my own table with no fears or limitations. But I've also learned to be more open now and more spontaneous in life.

You don't know what will happen from one minute to the next.

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

I'm discovering my sexual side, and exploring relationships. You know, sensual stuff. And I'm discovering a lot of sides of myself, stuff I've buried. So the music is also therapeutic, to come to terms with things. And I feel now like my head is in the right space.

The smaller you strip things down, the more you depend on the songs and yourself, as opposed to arrangements.

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

I think conveying the emotion of the collective we is pretty incredible. Especially in tumultuous times like we are in now.

Through the shake of an earthquake I will never fall. That's how strong my love is.

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.

All women are NATURALLY, bad ass!

I'm very blessed to have a phenomenal husband, son, and beautiful family and friends around me.

If your family -- just because they're blood doesn't mean that they necessarily give you the best advice.

I've always expressed myself best through writing. I've gotten out all of my deepest feelings that way for as long as I can remember.

Some people want it all But I don't want nothing at all If it ain't you baby If I ain't got you baby Some people want diamond rings Some just want everything But everything means nothing If I ain't got you, Yeah.

Why give up before we try Feel the lows before the highs Clip our wings before we fly away I can't say I came prepared I'm suspended in the air Won't you come be in the sky with me.

He broke my heart, and now it's raining, just to rub it in.

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 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.

I pray before everything. When I wake up, before I eat, before I perform, before I go to sleep, in the moments I need guidance.

In fact, I think that's my favorite word and the most important word when it comes to relationships: equality.

Good food is an amazing blessing. Whenever you can sit down at a table, eat food that is extremely delicious, and are surrounded by people you love...it's: Wow, life is good.

I think following my instinct has proven to lead me in the right direction, and it's hard to hear sometimes, because it's a noisy world and there's a lot of people talking to you.

When I did get signed and I was going around letting people know what I was about, that's exactly how I did it: me on the piano, playing a couple of songs I'd written and talking to the people in between. That's how I got my performance chops up.

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.

Right now the way I define beauty is individuality and wisdom, which I think creates a certain inner confidence. And not confidence in a way that's only on the surface, but a deep-down knowing of yourself or settling into who you are.

Hand me the world on a silver platter, and what good would it be?

I think that marriage is beautiful. And if it's a partnership with someone you love, then it really is beautiful. Yeah, I think that marriage does work.

Sometimes I feel good, at times I feel used. Loving you darling, makes me so confused.

I'm so grateful that I can play and that I can execute what I hear in my head, because that's the tricky part.

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.

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.

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.

No one will take care of you if you don't take care of yourself.

With each new day, I'm learning how to take control in order to have balance in my life. I plan time for myself and my loved ones and take it.

I wouldn't mind being in one place for two months or so. It really doesn't sound so bad!

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

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.

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

We believe Frederick Nietzsche couldn't have been more right when he said 'without music, life would be a mistake.

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 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.

My son makes me super giddy, especially when he laughs. His laugh makes me laugh like a maniac!

There is this fallacy about how women are catty, that we're all in competition with each other. I'd say: As opposed to getting swept up in jealousy, use that pang to give you an indication of what you are looking for.

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.

Love me like you'll never see me again.

Early on in my career, I was more closed off in every way. I thought I was protecting myself; instead, I was robbing myself of all I could learn and experience.

Soul music is timeless.

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.

Our mission goes beyond commerce, it goes beyond technology. Our intent is to preserve music's importance in our lives, music is the language of love, of laughter, of heartbreak, of mystery. It's the world's true, true, without question, universal language.

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.

Many things inspire me. First and foremost, my family, my husband, and our son. I find that the love we share fills me up and makes me see and appreciate life in a different way.

Quiet moments recharge me.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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'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.

Maturity and experience are part of my liberation.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

I'm a very caring person.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

You've got to love what's yours.

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.

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