Miguel Quotes

I could speak Spanish fluently growing up, but I'm so out of practice, and I have such a tremendous respect for songwriting in the Spanish language.

I mean, there's plenty of artists who are making R&B music, but because of their ethnicity, it's considered something else.

I think at any point, as an artist, whatever the medium - just having an audience means the world.

I think what I bring to the table overall is a sense of my own individuality, especially in the urban-male spectrum of what is here and now.

You can't take yourself too seriously. But always have conviction.

I know I'm a very dynamic performer. Once you come to the show, you're gonna want to have the album. I think it's more about showing people that it's OK to share similarities, but it's more important to embrace your individuality.

There are a couple of homeopathic things that can be done, but you can't really beat good rest and lots of water. That's the honest truth. Making sure I'm well-rested and hydrated makes a big difference. Warm water and honey is a go-to, I don't really drink tea unless it's absolutely organic, because otherwise the caffeine will dry my voice out for some reason.

What is missing in a lot of urban music is perspective. You hear a lot of regurgitated perspective. It's a lot of: out at the club. Had drinks. Patrón. Big booties. It's this regurgitated idea of living in this, I don't know, one-night-stand moment that always starts at the club and Patrón. And so perspective, perspective, perspective is what I'm an advocate of.

When I was coming up, I just wanted to play baseball and I'm doing what I love to do most. How can I feel pressure doing what I love to do?

The whole cultural diversity and musical diversity, I think they almost go hand in hand, you know? It's like a mind space or a it's having an open mind to what else is out there.

There's a lot of stuff in the club that's like, it's cool there because you're drinking and all you wanna do is do ignorant sh*t.

I can write hundreds of songs on simple power chords.

I'm a big advocate of music being an honest representation of who you are as a person and your perspective.

I feel that as artists - whatever your medium is - I feel that we're watching what goes on around us and we take what we don't see, or we don't hear, or we don't feel and we do something that speaks of it; more about it, for it, or against it - whatever our perspective is - that's what our job is.

All the best times in music were rebellious. I mean, even like Elvis, people didn't want their daughters paying attention to him. He was considered too sexual!

I think my style as far as vocal delivery and even down to the pronunciation of certain words is so deliberate.

Which not peace for the man who is forced to go to war, for he will find his peace. But wish peace for the man who goes to war willingly, for he will never find his peace.

I associate creativity with independent music.

The grass isn't always greener on the other side. I start off kind of in love and then I leave love and I'm single.

I have this propensity to just come out and say things. That's how I am in real life.

What I will say is that Naz and I are not together just because we like to hang out. The purpose is finding someone that you can spend the rest of your life with, for me anyways.

I think there's a huge parallel that affects my musical taste, and connections that have to do with my ethnic diversity and my musical tastes and the diversity of that. And it's interesting that, growing up on the circuit, it posed such a challenge, not only to me deciding what my identity was amongst my peers, but then on the music side, it was like trying to explain or convince people especially in the music industry that there was a place for what I was trying to do. But at the same time, I think it has a lot to do with timing and even me, like, understanding it.

I feel like R&B as a genre has become a caricature of itself.

I think in a world where everyone wants to categorize and compartmentalize and rationalize, it's OK to be different.

I want to be transparent, so I don't leave room for too much thinking.

I think what I'm trying to build is a reputation for evolving and for change. Because of the rate of information that we have access to at this point, it's almost hard not to be ever-growing.

I'm a firm believer that when children have a strong conviction about something, it's often because there's some powerful experience from a past life. Something that they didn't get to fulfill.

Historically, black music has influenced other cultures and other genres and created other genres.

I believe dreams represent the purest form of fantasy we unleash through our subconscious. They represent the truest freedom we can experience. Totally unrepressed and totally creative.

What makes your life different from the next n***a? There is something special about you, so let me help you bring out your individuality.

'SNL' is probably one of the premiere outlets that a musician can perform on that isn't obviously a music outlet.

Underground hip-hop is, like, one of my foundations, I would say a cornerstone of my foundation of my musical tastes.

The extremes of who I'd love to be onstage are David Bowie, Prince, and, I don't know, Bjork.

For me, the creative process for me always starts in a personal place. I step away from my iPod or any records or CDs.

Most people know my music based on the singles, and think of it as scandalously romantic. There's definitely a romantic vibe, but I often sing things that are very direct. I don't beat around the bush much.

Travel aesthetics should be just as comfortable and practical as they are fashionable.

I think I'll always make music that sounds different from what is current, but I doubt that it'll sound consistently the same as what I've been doing.

Just as eunuchs will never know aesthetics as applied to the selection of beautiful women, so neither will pure rationalists ever know ethics, nor will they ever succeed in defining happiness, for happiness is a thing that is lived and felt, not a thing that is reasoned or defined.

I would say that the most complex style of singing comes from India. Real, classical Indian music produces probably the best technical and natural singers in the world, just because the patterns and the inflection are so complex in how the style moves and what it requires vocally. I think the best classical singers come from India.

I'm not here to write a song for you, I'm here to help you write a song for yourself.

I'm a nice guy, but I like to get into trouble.

I've always had this tremendous and very deep feeling of knowing my purpose, you know? It never dawned on me, it always very much known.

Goat screaming videos are hilarious.

There's just something really, really timeless about live instruments. There's just something special about them that you can't really duplicate or grasp without including live instruments.

I think the goal is in general to broaden my fans' perspectives and their horizons. Not to be cliché. But to introduce them to things that they may not have introduced to themselves.

I embrace that I'm different. That I'm unique.

I don't think I live the lifestyle that's expected of a quote unquote R&B artist. I'm just not that dude.

PERSONAL IMPORTANCE or taking things personally, is an expression of SELFISHNESS because we make the assumption that everything is about ME!! NOTHING PEOPLE DO IS BECAUSE OF YOU!! IT'S BECAUSE OF THEMSELVES!!