Alicia Keys

I never thought love could be so deep, so wide, so open, so full, so elevating! Such a teacher! Thank you for teaching me, growing me, deepening me!!

What I learned the most from Prince was putting art first, being creatively ambitious, and putting creativity at the forefront of what I do.

Musicians have a really big part to play in spreading messages because they’re able to reach a large portion of people on an emotional level. Artists reach people at their heart; it’s the only time we meet in one place and put our differences aside. When you’re in a forum listening to music, all you feel in that moment is love and the understanding.

Kindness, love, strength and determination personified!! Madiba reminds me that everything is possible!

Sometimes, I want some damn makeup, and I’m going to wear it! Guess what — if I want to wear red lipstick and put eyelashes on, I can do whatever I f**king want. I am the creator of my own destiny,

My wish for us all is to love and adore ourselves just as much as we do everyone else!

I’ve always tried to defend the idea that the blues doesn’t have to be sung by a person who comes from Mississippi, as I did.

With the birth of the first artist, came the inevitable afterbirth… the first critic

For most dates I was paid the sum of $1 per hr and they always tipped me at the end of the night.

Writing is allowing the musical idea to speak for itself.

I use the audience as my color palette, my instrument.

The word “jazz” means to me no category, but when you get stuck into wanting to do something the way it was with the “jazz emblem” or logo chained around your neck, you play in a frozen moment in time and you keep fermenting the ‘fifties saying jazz should be this way or that. Well, if jazz to me means no category, then I’ve got the green light And if it sounds like.. sounds like.. sounds like, and keeps crossing over, it’s what I wanted to do in the first place. I like the way Stravinsky and those guys did things. They expressed something, if not themselves. In fact, some people talk about expression, but expression really doesn’t mean anything to me because there’s a lot of work which goes into building a drama and then it’s up to other people to offer “expression.” Expression is such a nebulous thing.

Jazz is an art form that depends on its antecedents. There must be respect for the people that have gone before.

Of the whole bunch of guys who play hollow body guitar, I think Herb Ellis has the most drive.

You can’t rehearse a blues darlin’.

I often wonder whether Negroes like myself who are pretty well known help out at all in breaking down barriers.

I keep these songs in my head until I get behind the microphone. I never spend more than 30 or 40 minutes singing the vocal or it will sound mechanical. There are always mistakes, but it’s about feeling more than being perfect.

Everyone is working who should be.

Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.

The trio is the biggest sound you can have with the smallest unit.

Jazz is one of the best things that you can find in your life, it can always be your friend.