Welcome to our collection of quotes by Madonna. We hope you enjoy pondering them and please share widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Madonna
Madonna Louise Ciccone (Italian: [tʃikˈkoːne]; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She is one of the most influential figures in popular culture and has often been referred to as the "Queen of Pop". Madonna is noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, and visual presentation. She is also known for pushing the boundaries of artistic expression in mainstream music, while maintaining control over every aspect of her career. Her works, which incorporate social, political, sexual, and religious themes, have generated both controversy and critical acclaim.
Madonna moved to New York City in 1978 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing as a drummer, guitarist, and vocalist in the rock bands Breakfast Club and Emmy, she rose to solo stardom with her debut studio album, Madonna (1983). She followed it with a series of successful albums, including all-time bestsellers Like a Virgin (1984), True Blue (1986) and The Immaculate Collection (1990) as well as Grammy Award winners Ray of Light (1998) and Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005). Madonna has amassed many number-one singles throughout her career, including "Like a Virgin", "La Isla Bonita", "Like a Prayer", "Vogue", "Take a Bow", "Frozen", "Music", "Hung Up", and "4 Minutes".
Madonna's popularity was enhanced by roles in films such as Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Dick Tracy (1990), A League of Their Own (1992), and Evita (1996). While Evita won her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, many of her other films received poor reviews. As a businesswoman, Madonna founded the company Maverick in 1992; it included Maverick Records, one of the most successful artist-run labels in history. Her other ventures include fashion brands, children's books, health clubs, and filmmaking. She contributes to various charities, having founded the Ray of Light Foundation in 1998 and Raising Malawi in 2006.
With sales of over 300 million records worldwide, Madonna is noted as the best-selling female music artist of all time by Guinness World Records. She is the most successful solo artist in the history of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and holds the record for the most number-one singles by a female artist in Australia, Canada, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. With a revenue of over U.S. $1.5 billion from her concert tickets, she remains the highest-grossing solo touring artist of all time. Madonna was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, her first year of eligibility. She was ranked as the greatest woman in music by VH1, and as the greatest music video artist of all time by MTV and Billboard. Rolling Stone also listed Madonna among the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time.
I stand before you as a doormat. Oh, I mean a female entertainer. Thank you for acknowledging my ability to continue my career in the face of blatant misogyny, sexism and relentless abuse.
I can't help falling in love I fall deeper and deeper the further I go Kisses sent from heaven above They get sweeter and sweeter the more that I know.
Cosmic systems intertwine, astral bodies drip like wine, all of nature ebbs and flows. Comets shoot across the sky, can't explain the reasons why, this is how creation goes.
Learn to say no, I've had enough. Then nothing and no one can hurt you.
Come on, vogue Let your body move to the music (move to the music) Hey, hey, hey.
I'll never be an angel
I'll never be a saint, it's true
I'm too busy surviving.
Here's my story (My story)
No risk, no glory (No glory)
A little
Up and down and all around
It's all about survival.
You must be my lucky star
'Cause you shine on me wherever you are
I just think of you and I start to glow
And I need your light.
Just take me with all my stupid flaws
Changing me's like shooting in the dark.
I'm Tough, I'm Ambitious, and I Know exactly what I Want. If that makes me a B.I.T.C.H., okay.
There is something comforting about being tied up. Like when you were a baby and your mother strapped you in the car seat. She wanted you to be safe. It was an act of love.
I laugh at myself.
I don't take myself completely seriously.
I think that's another quality that people have to hold on to... you have to laugh, especially at yourself.
We learn our lessons; we get hurt; we want revenge. Then we realize that actually, happiness and forgiving people is the best revenge.
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 self-confidence one builds from achieving difficult things and accomplishing goals is the most beautiful thing of all.
I think passive beauties have their place in the world. It's hard for me to relate to that.
I know there's more to life than making lots of money and being successful and even getting married and having a family.
I felt very awkward and out of place in school. Not popular, not attractive, not special in any way and I was longing for love and approval from someone.
I think everybody has a bisexual nature. That's my theory. I could be wrong.
Believing in yourself and being willing to do anything, to walk through the fire, to do what it is that you want to do. Getting out of that car accident covered with blood to play the gig ... I mean, that's me. That's just me.
I like coming up with these spectacular extravaganzas that will, hopefully, totally blow people away. But I also like the intimacy of stopping it all and sitting at the edge of the stage and connecting with individual people in the audience.
Rebel Heart changed everything. First of all, it drove me insane -- and made me feel an overwhelming sense of anxiety. It made me second guess everything, because suddenly I thought, 'Oh god, everyone's heard all these demos.'
As much good as it does, social media can also encourage stupidity and degradation.
I might be responsible for as many gay marriages as I am for heterosexual divorces.
The fact of the matter is that you can use your beauty and use your charm and be flirtatious, and you can get people interested in your beauty. But you cannot maintain that. In the end, talent is the only thing. My work is the only thing that's going to change any minds.
Younger people are generally more adventurous -- they're more open, more fun -- have you met many guys my age? Guys my age are married or divorced or grumpy, fat and balding.
I don't like guys my age because they are normally either married or divorced and grumpy, fat and balding.
My nature is to provoke, that's true. I can't help myself. But it's always with good intentions.
I've read a couple of reviews that say I'm getting harder in my old age but I don't think that's true at all. I think that you can't help but become a little cynical about life and love but I'm still a romantic, I'm still an idealist.
Publicly humiliating someone for your own gain will only come and haunt you. God's going to have his revenge.
For me, it's either you're part of creation or you're part of destruction. It's inexplicable; it's like breathing, and I can't imagine not doing it.
I see a huge paradox in me -- the intense need to be loved and the search for approval juxtaposed with the need to nurture other people, to be the mother I never had.
My father had to go to work, I used to think he was a jerk. I didn't know his heart was broken, and not another word was spoken.
Jean-Baptiste Mondino: She's John Lennon and Yoko Ono at the same time.
Before doing any interviews I like to know who I'm meeting with and get a bit of an idea of their sensibilities.
I think lines are meant to be crossed anyways. The entire time I was singing on the cross, there's numbers flipping over my head. You know, starting at one and going up to 12 million.
I'm angry. Yes, I am outraged. Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.
There isn't a performer on earth that isn't an exhibitionist. There isn't any point in being in this business if you're not an exhibitionist. And, by the way, you can be an exhibitionist and be very shy as well.
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'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.
Popularity comes and goes. You need to know who you are, what you stand for, and why you're here.
You don't have to have a language in common with someone for a sexual rapport. But it helps if the language you don't understand is Italian.
I like to be provocative.
Longer Version:
I like to be provocative. I like to make people think. I like to touch people's hearts. And if I can do all three of those things in one fell swoop, then I feel like I've really accomplished something.
I think there probably was a time when I was less provocative. That's when I was married.
People have this idea that if you're sexual and beautiful and provocative, then there's nothing else you could possibly offer.
RIP George Michael. I can't believe it. Such an incredible singer and a lovely human being, far too young to leave us.
One must dare to show what he wants. You have to go and ask for things rather than wait for them to happen.
I've always wanted to be taller. I feel like a shrimp, but that's the way it goes. I'm five-foot four-and-a-half-inches -- that's actually average. Everything about me is average. Everything's normal, in the books. It's the things inside me that make me not average.
When you are raised to believe that anything having to do with sex is forbidden and taboo, then of course that's all you want to know about. That becomes your complete and utter fascination. That is the surest way to interest a child.
I can't stand when I walk into a room and everyone's not talking to each other and just on their phones.
I've created a very unconventional family. I have lovers who are three decades younger than me. This makes people very uncomfortable.
Today I decided to sing in my underwear! No one seemed to mind! #loveyoufromtheinsideout. #artforfreedom.
I've been popular and unpopular successful and unsuccessful loved and loathed and I know how meaningless it all is. Therefore I feel free to take whatever risks I want.
What else is there for me to conquer? Hopefully my ego. How will I know when I've succeeded? When I stop caring what anyone thinks.
We've made so many advances in other areas -- civil rights, gay rights -- but ageism is still an area that's taboo and not talked about and dealt with.
There are any number of things that would be detrimental to your career. Everyone's really afraid.
Art keeps me alive. I've obviously been devastated or heartbroken all my life, since my mother's death.
I love the art form, but working in film can be a disheartening experience.
I wanted to be a nun. I saw nuns as superstars. When I was growing up I went to a Catholic school, and the nuns, to me, were these superhuman, beautiful, fantastic people.
I was thinking about dying the other day the death thought came while I was sitting on the toilet peeing -- that's where I have my most contemplative thoughts.
When you're writing something and you know it's good, you get flushed, you can feel the blood coursing through your veins, you feel alive, all your nerve endings stand up, something just clicks.
Nowadays New-York is not the exciting place it used to be. It still has great energy; I still put my finger in the socket. But it doesn't feel alive, cracking with that synergy between the art world and music world and fashion world that was happening in the 80s. A lot of people died.
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.
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.
Do everything you're told. Be a good cheerleader. And never, never say, 'It's not so bad.' Say 'You are almost there!' And say it a lot.
Effeminate men intrigue me more than anything in the world. I see them as my alter egos. I feel very drawn to them. I think like a guy, but I'm feminine. So I relate to feminine men.
