A Quote by Kiley Dean

When I was two I was always like "I wanna be a famous singer when I grow up." When you listen to most kids they went in and did all these competitions. I was never like that, my mom never pushed me like that. I pretty much just sang when I wanted to.
I've never wanted to be famous. That has never been a part of any dream. I do remember being little and thinking I might want to be a singer. But not a famous singer - just, like, a singer.
When I was, like, 4 or 5, I'd just always tell - my mom would ask me what I wanted to be when I got older. And I would just be like, 'I wanna be Kobe.' She'd be like, 'You wanna be in the NBA?' 'No, like, I wanna be Kobe.'
Frank [Sinatra] sang to you, not at you, like so many pop singers today. Even singers of standards. I never wanted to be a singer that sings at somebody. I've always wanted to sing to somebody. I would have gotten that subliminally from Frank many years ago. Hank Williams did that, too. He sang to you.
My dad treated me like a boy because he grew up with four brothers. He didn't baby me. He was never, like, "You're a girl, you can't do this." I never felt like I had to put a feminine spin on anything, I just wanted to do what the boys did as good or better.
My mom nor my father never pushed me into the music business. I always did it because I wanted to.
I never experimented with the hoddu like I wanted to do. Like on the song "Allah Addu," the hoddu and the voice is something that belongs to West African culture. When you go to the north of Mali, in the past it was just the singer and one instrument player. We never really did have that on our CDs. On some other songs, like "Laare Yoo," we have a whole section of hoddu, something like four of them playing together.
The fame thing is interesting because I never wanted to be famous, and I never dreamt I would be famous. You know, my fantasy of being a famous writer, and again there's a slight disconnect with reality which happens a lot with me. I imagined being a famous writer would be like being like Jane Austen.
I was never really like, 'Oh, I wanna be famous,' you know, 'I wanna be a big rapper.' I mean, I love rap, but it wasn't just fame.
I looked up at my mom, and I was like, 'Well, Mom, uh, when you really think about it, C's aren't really that bad. C's are average.' And I've never seen my mom so upset, to this day. I just saw this flash of fire in her eyes, and she yelled, 'Average? You are never allowed to be average, because you look like me.'
He never hurries. He never shows his cards. He always hangs up first....Like when we first started talking on the phone, he would always be the one who got off first. When we kissed, he always pulled away first. He always kept me just on the edge of crazy. Feeling like I wanted him too much, which just made me want him more....[It was] excruciating and wonderful. It feels good to want something that bad. I thought about him the way you think about dinner when you haven't eaten for a day and a half. Like you'd sell your soul for it.
She was this incredible mom. With each of her kids, she did something called `time,' where she would spend an hour each day doing whatever the kid wanted to do, whether it was play spacemen or `Let's go into your makeup, and I'll make you up like a clown.' And as a teenager you'd be like, `Rub me, Mom. Give me a massage.'
My grandmother had six kids - one died as an infant - and she was dirt-poor, and all her kids got an education. And my mom grew up poor. And they both worked so hard and cultivated so much of their own happiness. I wanted to have that like an amulet. Not like armor, but like a magic feather. Like Dumbo's magic feather.
My Dad played the trombone and I think my Mom played the piano for about two years. It is very self-driven. They pushed me to do piano lessons, but they were never forceful about anything. They never pushed me to sing or anything, it was something that I did myself.
The only reason I became the singer in the band is because I sang the best. It wasn't out of some desire to be a star or be a famous singer. It's not like I love interviews.
I'm not a big fan of lead vocalists, people who sing but don't play. I never wanted to be in a band where the guy who was up front just sang. I've always thought it better when one of the musicians sings, like Steve Winwood.
Em didn't truly understand about my panic attacks - no one did. But she'd never pushed me to explain, never tried to ditch me when things got weird, and never once looked at me like I was a freak.
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