Alicia Keys

Everything I do stems from something personal, not just because it will look good on paper or be a tax write-off.

I want my sons to grow up in a world where they’d never think boys are better than girls or that black is better than white.

Everyone deserves an equal chance at success.

I constantly ask myself if what I’m doing is for me or somebody else. It’s tripping me out!

What if… everything you are going through is preparing you for what you asked for?

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.

I do Jazz, Blues, Country and so forth. I do them all like a good utility man.

Sound is the first thing that we tune into.

I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was 6 years old.

I want the music to connect to people; reach people every time I perform.

If T-Bone Walker had been a woman, I would have asked him to marry me. I’d never heard anything like that before: single-string blues played on an electric guitar.

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

When you are studying Jazz best thing to do is listen to records and live music as much you can and absorb everything.

To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.

The better it gets, the fewer of us know it.

One of the things I like about Jazz, kid, is I don’t know what’s going to happen next. Do you?

My dark sound could be heard across a room clearer than somebody with a reedy sound. It had more projection. My sound always seemed to fill a room.

I did go through a trial-and-error period where I tried out lots of different guitars, but within a couple of years I was right back to the Les Paul. From that point it’s stayed with me ever since. I have other guitars—and I love a lot of them—but I’m most at home on a Les Paul. It’s interesting: most of the time I would even rather make a Les Paul do the things those other guitars do. From the get-go, the Les Paul spoke to me.

Jazz is a complete lifestyle, something that you feel, something that you live.

To get the music the way you want it, there’s a lot of work involved.

I think that it is important to try to sound like someone, especially early in your development.