Alicia Keys

We think – or maybe we’re shown – that the only way to express ourselves is through that very sexy energy. I think there’s more than that which shows our power. For me, I sometimes feel the most sexy when I’m totally covered head to toe.

I want to keep redefining my work and trying new things. I want my music to be able to fit into any category. I want it to float wherever my heart goes. My music is heart music; giving it any other description is dangerous.

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!!

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

Everyone deserves an equal chance at success.

My first instinct is great pride for all of us as women who are finding our voices.

Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision.

When it comes to music, don’t lie to yourself; just tell yourself the truth.

Leo wanted me to be partners with him – for it to be the Fender guitar: the Les Paul Fender. When he approached me with the idea, he brought over a guitar and he gave it to me and I have it here. And I thought, if I’m gonna do this I’m going to go with the biggest company in the world: Gibson. Why should I fool around with some guy who is not a musician – I should go to the Gibson people.

Nothing is so well-prepared as a great spontaneous performance.

It’s spontaneity that has always characterized Jazz music’s finest improvisers.

I have a sense of the importance of music and how powerful it is to bring people together.

When you listen to someone improvise, the notes that are played are only half the story.

Jazz is America’s classical music.

Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around.

I used to play – when I first started trying to be professional, I disk jockey from 1949 to 1955 in Memphis, Tennessee, and I was quite popular there as a disk jockey.

A good quartet is like a good conversation among friends interacting to each other’s ideas.

I’m not much on gimmicks. I never have been because they don’t last.

Change is always happening. That’s one of the wonderful things about Jazz music.

I never thought about being famous or rich. I just thought, Oh, I’ll get a nice little girl and go and play every night, and I’d be happy. And that worked for a while. But the little girl’s mother didn’t trust a guy with a horn.

And ultimately the people who produce my records, they know that they’re here to serve the purpose of me expressing who I am at this period of time and augmenting that or pulling it forward and I love that process.