Alicia Keys Quotes
I'm inspired by artists and musicians. There are so many wonderful and talented people in the world. I love discovering new music, new writers, or new art.
A Minor is one of my all-time favorite keys to play in. It's a very moody key, and also 'A' is the first letter of my name. It just represents the songs through my eyes.
If I want to be alone, some place I can write, I can read, I can pray, I can cry, I can do whatever I want - I go to the bathroom.
Failure isn't an option. I've erased the word fear from my vocabulary and I think when you erase fear you can't fail.
I've stepped more into my womanhood, I'm a mother now, I'm having a beautiful relationship as a wife and as a friend.
I have my mother who is an Irish-Italian, and my father who is African, so I have the taste buds of an Italian and the spice of an African.
The last thing I want is to walk into my house after a long day and see all the Grammys and awards. It would make me feel weird.
I was so deeply involved in music, I had already outgrown all the pressure of high school cliques and gossip.
I'd rather believe in my own choice and see it all go wrong than do something I'm not fully convinced of and later feel guilty about it.
I've seen so many lives turn around from the impossible. I have come to embrace the idea that even the simplest act of understanding, love and attention can produce the biggest results.
What breaks my heart is suffering of any kind. Too often, our world is divisive and cruel where it needs to be uniting and loving.
Everybody goes through their life in different ways. I definitely am having my journey. It evolves and changes. At some moments, I feel totally off center and trying to find my way back.
I think there's an energy about just remaining excited. Like, you can't be excited when you're not doing something new.
I see what happens when one gets very attached to material things. That's just not what my life is.
I believe AIDS is the most important issue we face, because how we treat the poor is a reflection of who we are as a people.
I'm the cofounder of Keep a Child Alive. We provide medicine for families affected by HIV and AIDS in places like Africa and India.
When I was younger, studying classical music, I really had to put in the time. Three hours a day is not even nice - you have to put in six.
I've met many young women who are HIV positive and courageously fighting the disease. Their determination to live a full life and see their children live in a better world is deeply inspiring to me.
My mother is an actress, and she used to drag me from theater to theater and reading to reading.
I believe in the limitlessness of humans. We're capable of incredible things. At times, that realization is frightening.
We're all going to change. Otherwise, it's boring. Who wants to stay the damn same all their life?
Most times, your blessings are also your curses. And for me, I have this ability to express myself so clearly with pen and paper, but when it comes to expressing myself verbally, I put up a big wall.
My music comes from many, many, many places. My emotions, my feelings, my thoughts, and conversations I have with people I know who influence me.
The smaller you strip things down, the more you depend on the songs and yourself, as opposed to arrangements.
When I had nothing else, I had my mother and the piano. And you know what? They were all I needed.
It's not until I hear songs that I've done, that I realize how much of an inspiration music from the '60s and '70s has been.
I promised myself that I'd never actually admit to listening to 'New Kids on the Block.'
The most important thing is to be proud of the work that you put into something, and put the ego aside.
My mixed-race background made me a broad person, able to relate to different cultures. But any woman of colour, even a mixed colour, is seen as black in America. So that's how I regard myself.