Top 644 Quotes & Sayings by Madonna Ciccone - Page 2

With all the chaos, pain and suffering in the world, the fact that my adoption of a child from who was living in an orphanage, you know, was the number one story for a week in the world. To me, that says more about our inability to focus on the real problems.

Making movies is really hard. It's the hardest thing I've ever done.

When I left Michigan and I came to New York, that was my goal, to be a professional dancer. And I sort of fell into singing by accident in a way.

Growing up, I didn't feel cool; I didn't fit into any crowd.

I've always danced and exercised. I can't imagine not doing it. I'll be Martha Graham in my 90s doing contractions on the floor.

Because I was a dancer, I started going to auditions for musical theater, which forced me to sing.

I had decided that if I was going to be a singer, I had to earn it. I had to learn how to play an instrument.

My physical transformations - like changing my hair - are usually a reflection of what's inspiring me at the moment.

I'm attracted to artists like Frida Kahlo, because her work was her life, her questions, her outrage, her suffering, her pain. Everything is in her work.

One of the things that helps me tell a story through music is to create a character. I have to have a muse, whether it's Frida Kahlo, Martha Graham, Marlene Dietrich, or Pippi Longstocking.

Imagine if someone like John Lennon or Bob Marley, Sid Vicious, Picasso, whomever, were doing their work, and some corporation, some CEO, some branding entity was saying to you, 'Well, you can do that, but you've got to remove this aspect of your work.' There would no longer be that purity anymore.

I'm a showgirl. After 20 years in show business, I've learned to roll with the punches.

When I went to Africa, I was reduced to floods of tears every day.

I think it's fun to get in a room and sweat with people. I'm happy to share my workouts with everyone.

The thing about dancing - what it taught me all those years - is it gives you an amazing sense of discipline in forcing yourself to do things that you know are good for you but you don't really want to do.

I'm encouraging other people, whether they're professionals or not, to use their creativity to express themselves, to get a conversation going, to get the party started, really.

In England especially, I've found that if you bring up King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson at a dinner party or a social gathering, it's like throwing a Molotov cocktail into the room.

I believe sometimes we aren't always in charge of everything that we do creatively. We submit to things as we're going on our own journey.

When you're 25, it's a little bit easier to be daring, especially if you are a pop star, because eccentric behavior is expected from you.

When I first moved to New York, I wanted to be a dancer. I danced professionally for years, living a hand-to-mouth existence. I never tapped into nightlife; all I knew was dancers. We went to bed early and got up early and went to free concerts at the Lincoln Center and Shakespeare in the Park.

People like it when others are gossiping. When you hear a story about someone's demise or some big faux-pas they made, everyone wants to tune into it, because it's nice to know that someone else made a mistake. It makes you feel elevated for a moment.

I think of myself as a performance artist. I hate being called a pop star. I hate that.

I'm opening gyms around the world to encourage people to get in shape and feel good about themselves; bringing art through dance to gyms to make my gyms different from other people's.

Of course, my interests and my focus change and become more diverse, more worldly. At the same time, I am interested in the simple basics, which is I love to dance and I love to make people dance.

I hope that I inspire women to believe in themselves, no matter where they come from; no matter what education they have; what particular background they originate from.

I've always been acutely aware of differences and the way you are supposed to act if you want to be popular.

Being famous has changed a lot, because now there's so many outlets, between magazines, TV shows, and the Internet, for people to stalk and follow you. We created the monster.

I love being a mother. My children fill me up in many ways, and inspire me in many ways, but I need a partner in my life, and I think most people feel that way.

I live - I live a highly scheduled life. There's absolutely no time wasted. I'm very focused. And I have a great assistant.

I know there's more to life than making lots of money and being successful and even getting married and having a family.

I went to the University of Michigan for one year, and fortunately they had a foreign-film cinema, and I discovered it, and I thought I died and went to heaven.

I just find the people I want to work with and put it all together, and it's a lot of hard work, and all kinds of catastrophes happen, but I don't really get too much resistance. But when you make a movie, it seems like there's nothing but resistance. It's kind of a miracle that any movie ever gets made.

I was named after my mother. And I guess when I started making records, Madonna Ciccone seemed too long and complicated, and I just got stuck with Madonna.

There's always elements of danger in New York, but people are always out on the street. I don't feel scared there at all.

I'm always looking for something new: a new inspiration, a new philosophy, a new way to look at something, new talent.

I think a lot of people have a problem with the fact that I've adopted an African child, a child who has a different color skin than I do.

I wear the Jewish star, but I'm not - I haven't converted to Judaism, and I'm not - I'm not - I'm not Jewish in the conventional sense because the Kaballah is a belief system that predates religion and predates Judaism as an organized religion.

You realise that having a number one record and being loved and adored isn't the most important thing in the world. But at the same time, I don't have a problem with it. What I'm trying to say is, I'm not a reluctant pop star.

I want to give a child a life who wouldn't be given a life. I want a child that nobody else wants.

If I can't be daring in my work or the way I live my life, then I don't really see the point of being on this planet.

I've never really lived a conventional life, so I think it's quite foolish for me or anyone else to start thinking that I am going to start making conventional choices.

Where you record is very important. It can't be too nice, it can't be too expensive, it can't have a view to an ocean or a field.

Writing is a very intimate thing, especially when you write lyrics and sing them in front of someone for the first time. It's like a really embarrassing situation. To me, singing is almost like crying, and you have to really know someone before you can start crying in front of them.

I tend to write during the day so I can see my children at night. But if my kids aren't with me and I have a chunk of time when I'm a single woman living in my house for a miraculous week, I will get to write at different hours.

I'm guilty of eating Magnum bars before I go to sleep at night.

One of the many things I learned from all of this: If you aren't willing to fight for what you believe in, then don't even enter the ring.

I think art should be controversial. I think it should make people think.

My nature is to provoke, that's true. I can't help myself. But it's always with good intentions.

I want the good life, but I don't want an easy ride. What I want is to work for it, feel the blood and sweat on my fingertips.

Once you start turning over rocks and reaching out to help people, there's a whole avalanche coming right behind it. And it seems never-ending. But when you see the fruits of your labor, you feel like it's possible.

No one knows you better than you know yourself. Do the thing you want. Don't wait for someone else

Popularity comes and goes. You need to know who you are, what you stand for, and why you're here.

We live in a world where people like to pit women against each other. And this is why I love the idea of embracing other females who are doing what I'm doing. It's important for us to support each other.

I don't care if you hate me or love me, as long as I make you think.

Express yourself, don't repress yourself.

If you want to change the world, change yourself.

I always acted like a star long before I was one.

Sick and perverted always appeals to me.

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.

I think the ultimate challenge is to have some kind of style and grace, even though you haven't got money, or standing in society, or formal education. I had a very middle, lower-middle class sort of upbringing, but I identify with people who've had, at some point in their lives to struggle to survive. It adds another color to your character.