Erykah Badu Quotes

When you're performing, you're creating a moment.

I think what makes people think that is because of things people write. It really doesn't have anything to do with the artist.

I take the same approach in all genres of art, across the board. It's intuitive.

I've had two children. I've had three boyfriends. I've had a lot of things happen that can change your opinions and values and philosophies.

I'm kind of a recluse when it comes to going outside.

My third mother is my paternal grandmother. Her name is Viola. She gave me my sense of knowing why, or knowing why it was important to ask why. She made me understand that I don't have to believe everything I hear.

We're all friends, inside the music and outside the music. I mean, we don't sound anything alike, we don't approach our music anything alike, but we come from the same genuine place. We want our music to be real and we don't want to compromise our art.

I got a call from a mutual friend of ours, Charles King, who's also the executive producer. [Steven Caple Jr and I] had a conversation about it. I read it. We kind of finished each other's sentences when it came to the nuances and personality flaws that the character had, and some stereotypes and things we were trying to stay away from. We agreed on that as well. He just kind of allowed me to run rampant with the ideas. As we paced ourselves through, we developed Turquoise.

All the women in my family were very creative.

I believed in myself, and I've always worked very, very hard as an artist, and I am an artist in every sense of the word.

I'm a woman who has gone through many heartaches, enough to dedicate my whole life to trying to figure them out.

Anything that had to do with art I been doing all my life. It was a gift. It's nothing I work real hard at doing.

I knew it would happen. I knew I'd be No. 1. I'm a new artist; I don't know the rules. Nobody told me it wouldn't happen

I have an apartment in Brooklyn - I guess I call it my shrine. I go there to create and recoup, or hibernate sometimes, but my home is in Dallas where I live with my children.

Poor is the new black.

No one chooses to raise children alone.

Peace and Blessings manifest with every lesson learned. If your knowledge were your wealth then it would be well earned.

My hair is an aesthetic choice… At the same time, how you wear your hair is a political statement as well.

During childbirth and hospice I'll sing gospel songs that my grandma taught me when I was younger, or something I've made up, or I'll hum. I just play things that I think the audience will like.

The Man That Knowz Something Knowz That He Knowz Nothing At All.

I relate to that - he inspires me across the board. His music inspires me and reminds me to maintain honesty in the things that I do, to have an absence of fear. Listening to Earl Sweatshirt's music is like therapy to me.

Now keep in mind that I'm an artist and I'm sensitive about my sh*t

I solidify his [ Riccardo Tisci] vision and what he is trying to manifest, make it a crystal or solid thing because of the relationship I have with my culture and what my music means to him.

We literally just finished making this gown 20 minutes ago. I love it. It's my favorite color.

I just love expressing my joy and my mind through what I wear, or how I cook, or how I dance, or how I write or perform a song - how I move.

I'm in training to become a midwife. I'm almost there and before I know it I'll be able to open my own practice, if that's what I desire.

What I work hard at doing is staying on a path of being kind and showing and proving that I'm a good person to society. That's hard. The talent, that's a gift. I just came here like that.

Hip-hop is the people. What the people are moving toward is what hip-hop is. I think people are moving toward a freer way of thinking. Openness.

What does music mean to me? I don't think I would really be much without it, without it coming through me. It's my means of communication, my means of growth, my means of transportation from one point in my life to another.

I'm a complete human being. I'm very emotional and loving. I feel, I hurt, I give, I take, and also I think. I analyze. I'm a sociologist, anthropologist.

We were all born, and we all came to the music business with everything we had. Some of us just don't get a chance. Now there's a lot of other people like myself, indeed, who are getting heard worldwide. That gives other artists a chance.

I'm inspired by Earl Sweatshirt. He's a really honest writer, and he's unusually intelligent.

A home birth is about being able to create exactly what you want, because it's such a violent moment inside of the body that you want everything else to be as beautiful as it can be.

I was born to make mistakes, I ain't scared to take the weight.

Marvin Gaye is one of my favorite revolutionaries. He spoke from his heart, his mind. That's what I want to do.

I'll dabble here and there in different forms of the art, but the label has me locked down like a slave so, of course, I'll be doing albums during this time

I grew up listening to old soul

Hopefully my music is medicine, some type of antidote for something or some kind of explanation or just to feel good.

But now I realize that this record business really needs me. No one else is trying to take a chance or do something different.

Personally, I don't choose any particular religion or symbol or group of words or teachings to define me. That's between me and the most high. You know, my higher self. The Creator.

I love putting the music together. It's like art

I planned my success. I knew it was going to happen.

My favorite jewelry, it's just what I'm feeling at the time.

I don't think it matters what school you go to, but I think it's important for parents to be involved. And to know that when school stops, learning continues, and to continue teaching at home.

I'm not satisfied with the explanations I get from tv or from school.

It's almost like a lot of black people in America, a lot of young black men, are born with this cloud over their heads. It's their penitentiary cloud, this philosophy we all have, that it's harder for us.

I have a Pinterest, and if you look there you'll see the things I really like and adore, have crushes on, and there's a lot of stuff from Riccardo's [Tisci] line on there.

My first, my birth mother - her name is Queenie - she gave me a powerful medicine when I was a child. She told me that, "I was the best," and it helped me so much.