Anita Baker Quotes

It's impossible to write and produce a record when your parents are dying. I really tried, I really, really tried, but it just wouldn't come.

Most artists are notoriously insecure, and I fall into that category.

You leave home to seek your fortune and, when you get it, you go home and share it with your family.

I don't think being black has held me back at all. Being black makes you strong.

As soon as you get off stage, that's the most dangerous time for a singer to kiss people because your vocal chords are receptive to any kind of germ.

I'd love to be the political voice of my generation, but that's not my gift.

We don't do drugs, drink or use profanity. Instead we instill morals and values in my boys by raising them with a love of God and a love and respect for themselves and all people. I believe they will have a chance.

I made numerous attempts to find a way to do it all, to be a creative singer, songwriter, producer, and to be the mother, daughter, sister, lover, wife. And the thing about music is, with me, that she's a harsh mistress. She does not come to me in the midst of stress.

I don't let people use me. That's why I like a small number of people in my life. The more people in my life, the more complex it becomes, so I just try to keep it at a minimum.

I have as many pictures of my vocal cords as I do of my children. I have a great ear, nose and throat doctor, and we look at them - if there's some redness, maybe I'll take a little time off.

Oh my goodness, they are rocking so many variations of my high-top fade. I mean, Rihanna has taken it to a very angular 21st Century thing. Miss Fantasia has it in a very seductive, you know, up-flip, and it's just lovely, right? Oh, I think it's wonderful.

I think there's no sacrifice too great for family, whether it's career, singing, whatever.

I don't even have voice mail, and people get all out of shape about that. But, you know what, I don't want to transcribe your message; I want to talk to you. And that kind of freaks people out a bit. They go, 'Oh, who has time to talk?' and I'm like, 'Well, I'm gonna make time.'

I would make far more money if every song were my own, but I don't write to fill up the album with my songs.

Chris Brown is brilliant. That cat is crazy brilliant, and I wish him the best.

I love radio, but it's a very limited thing today. Everything has to be edited down to 3:59, and too bad if I didn't make my statement in three minutes and 59 seconds. Everybody's song has to make its point so quickly.

I would say that my peak was making my first million at the ripe age of 29, after the first album.

I'm in love, sweet love. Feel me calling out your name, I feel no shame.

I need my career. That's what validates me.

I'm used to getting up at 7, getting breakfast, getting the kids off to school, and doing the mommy thing and the wife thing and the daughter thing.

If you have your own agenda and your own style and you don't easily conform to what the masses are doing, you're looked upon as being difficult. Whereas, I think of it as just being an individual.