After being on 'Oprah' for a couple of months, I got my first royalty check for $1,478,392.17. I will never forget it. At the height of my career, I made $3.3 million. Unbelievable. From welfare in the projects to $3.3 million.
I made my first million pounds at the age of 26. As a little girl, I said I would retire when I had made my first million. The reality was different. When I did make it, I wanted to make another million, and another, and another after that.
I put out my first song, 'The Other,' in 2015 just on Soundcloud. It was always my most popular song but never really went far in a mainstream way. Then, a couple years after it came out, I watched it go from 8 million to, like, 100 million.
A million million million million (1 with twenty-four zeros after it) miles, the size of the observable universe.
The million, million, million ... to one chance happens once in a million, million, million ... times no matter how surprised we may be that it results in us.
In coming to New York, I got my first Broadway show six months after I got here. So that song, 'Movin' Too Fast,' means so much to me, knowing that feeling where it's just where you imagined yourself, but it's flying by you at a million miles an hour.
Every bad decision I've made has been based on money. I grew up in the projects and you don't turn down money there. You take it, because you never know when it's all going to end. I made Cop III because they offered me $15 million. That $15 million was worth having Roger Ebert's thumb up my ass.
It's either 'Saw' made for $4 million or 'Star Wars,' 'Star Trek,' 'Guardians of the Galaxy' et cetera being made for $150 million. So the $30 and $40 million films don't get made unless they're maybe 'Ride Along.' But I don't really know why. I don't get paid to know why.
They said, "You get $2 million to make the film, if you're not in it. If you are in it, you get $5 million to make the film." There was no way to make the thing for $2 million, so I made it for $5 million. And then, it turned out there was no way to make the thing for $5 million. That's when it got weird.
If you get half a million, at a certain stage you probably will get 4 million people, if they are able to hear it. The touring thing is unbelievable. It really is amazing from what we did the last tour even to what we are doing now.
Pain? Yes, of course. Racing without pain is not racing. But the pleasure of being ahead outweighed the pain a million times over. To hell with the pain. What's six minutes of pain compared to the pain they're going to feel for the next six months or six decades. You never forget your wins and losses in this sport. YOU NEVER FORGET.
Think, just blink and I made...a million rhymes.
Just imagine if you blinked...a million times.
Damn, I'd be paid...I got it made.
The last six months of the Bush administration lost four million jobs and the first six months of the Obama administration lost another four million before any initiatives of the president could take action.
How can a guy talk about $20 or $30 million if he's never even made $8 or $9 million?
For me, as I suspect for most people, there comes a point where you have enough. If you've got £20 million, why keep going until you've got £100 million or £1,000 million? Does anyone need another vast yacht or private jet or a house full of gold?
They say I'm worth either €200 million, €100 million, €50 million or €10 million, but that's something between God, the HMRC and myself.
It made me realize again how complicated being a mother is. You have 50 million heartbreaking moments, and 100 million beautiful, joyous ones.