Top 100 Quotes & Sayings by India Arie - Page 2

I always felt like - I mean, I was told, really - I couldn't go too far with the productions because it didn't appeal to black radio. It wasn't until I decided I was going to do what I wanted to do or I was going to quit that I empowered myself. I took my power back.

Songs like 'Peaceful World' and songs that are responsible with their lyrics and talk about love and harmony can take the forefront and do something for real.

When I was growing up, I only saw really brown people on 'The Cosby Show,' and they were rich, and their parents were doctors. It wasn't like my home.

I don't want the world to get any worse. I want to make it better.

Everything in my music has always been emotionally and spiritually motivated... But after I started doing yoga, the place where I came from changed drastically.

I love my brownness.

I want my music to be a contribution, and I want the people who love me on Earth and in Heaven to be proud of who I am, and I want to be proud of myself, and I don't want to look back and say, 'Oh God, why did I say that?'

There's just something creatively fulfilling about watching a movie and writing a song for it because it helps you put on another pair of shoes.

It was challenging getting myself into the mindset to lose the weight. Once I got there, the weight dropped off quickly.

I had been on what seemed to be a hiatus to the outside world, but I was actually working very hard on my health, my emotional health, and my business.

I always pray when I write songs that my spirit guides, or whoever is with me, inspiring me, would let me speak the truth.

I've always wanted my music to serve a certain purpose.

At 16, I started really loving country music, and Collin Raye just had the most amazing ballads!

'Open Door' was a world music project and bilingual. It was in Hebrew and English, and it's great. I do think it's really beautiful. But it's very emotional and very dark - in a good way.

Why not be a person who is loving towards humankind as a whole and people as individuals?

That's the kind of music I want SoulBird to represent: music with intelligence and heart, music that moves people in their souls and their bodies. Music with wings.

I want to always be classy and honest, and I always want to have fun with music, and if I can't really express who I am through my music, then it's not really fun anymore.

I hope that the things that I sing about will be an inspiration for people to be original.

I always loved music, but I didn't know if I could be the kind of artist that makes a difference.

It took me almost wanting to retire to realize that you need to ask for what you need. Everybody needs something different, but whatever it is you need, you need to ask for it and figure out how to get it.

Music lives in my mother - she's played in bands in Detroit and toured and did the whole thing. So I have somebody who's done it all to just talk to. And we write songs together.

If I don't have the right clothes, I feel weird walking out; I don't feel comfortable in what I have on. I have different colors that I want to wear on different days because it makes me feel different.

There are a lot of men who like women with a brain.

I'm in show business, and I'm an entertainer, but I also see myself as an artist doing social and spiritual work.

It's cool to hear my songs on the radio. But for me, that's just a way to get more people to have the option of choosing my music.

I made a conscious decision when I was recording 'Acoustic Soul' to - and this is one of my mantras - follow the music and let the chips fall where they may.

This celebrity culture that hypnotizes people into thinking a person is literally not real because you see them on television is a spell the watcher him- or herself must break.

Nobody looked like me when I was growing up. None of the kids were as big as me, or as serious as me, or listened to the same music.

With 'Acoustic Soul,' I saw my music as sparse. But I didn't do that because I was making a commitment to be commercial. That's what made 'Acoustic Soul' so difficult to produce. It took 2 1/2 years because I couldn't figure out what I wanted and still be commercial.

I was scared of failing, and I was scared of succeeding. I just wanted to be in a safe space and not grow too big or be too little.

It's OK to wear white in the wintertime. Do what you want.

Basically, I listen to voices. If they write good songs and they can sing, I'll probably like it.

Could a person really make a social contribution through music consciously? I mean, beyond making a person happy to hear the song and more making a social contribution consciously through your music? For me, Stevie Wonder is the paragon of that. And I didn't want to be Stevie Wonder, but I did want to do what he does.

In Denver, all we really had was pop radio, so I grew up on all that late '70s pop stuff - Billy Joel, James Taylor, Lionel Richie, Elton John, Steve Miller and Toto. Great love songs and really hooky and melodic music - I have all of that stuff in my heart.

I've spent my entire life trying to figure out why I was different than everybody else. Why is my voice so deep? Why am I so muscular?

Every once in a while, I find something that I'm interested in just because of the singing, like the Goo Goo Dolls.

Now that I have better producer chops, a country album is something I want to do one day. I don't know who's going to put it out. But when I do, I don't think people will call it 'country music.' They'll probably call it 'neo-soul.'

Denying any person their humanity is a game we should all stop playing.

Everybody has a spiritual body. Everybody has a physical body, and so your spiritual body is the stuff that holds all of your emotions like your body holds your organs, your food, your muscles, your water. Your spiritual body holds your emotional state and your mental state.

Some people say, 'If she's so real, why does she call herself with a made-up name?' Well, India is my real name. Or they say, 'If she's so real, why does she wear makeup?' I didn't know there was anything wrong with makeup.