Gloria Estefan Quotes

When most artists walk offstage, they go to a lonely hotel room. I went home to my family. They were there before the show, during and after. It's been great. I never would have done it any other way. I wasn't gonna miss raising my kids. There was no way that was gonna happen.

I'm a writer and this is what I love to do.

In this life, I'm always going to choose the positive.

This blend of musicians on '90 Millas' is historically significant on a number of levels. This is the first and quite possibly the last time that all of these legendary artists will play together on one CD.

I was a straight-A student, baby!

The sad truth is that opportunity doesn't knock twice.

We seal our fate with the choices we take, but don't give a second thought to the chances we take.

I know that people think of me in terms of Latin music and that's wonderful, that's my heritage, that's who I am, but there's so much more to me and my music.

One of the most beautiful things we can give our child is music education.

I think it's important to have a happy parent.

[After college] I was going to study at the Sorbon and become a diplomat. Being a diplomat comes in handy when you are dealing with record companies.

The music is one of the beautiful things that has survived the Castro regime. I have played for audiences all over the world but I've never played for a Cuban audience. For [husband] Emilio and me, the music is the one tie to our homeland.

My job as an entertainer is to take you some place else. I love exploring different genres of music to please my fans.

What's the point if you make something that's not you, and you're successful? You have to perform it the rest of your life.

For the rest of my life, the one song that people will remember
regardless
is "Conga" ... I never get tired of singing it. It never gets old for me.

If you're trying to do what's popular now, you're way behind already. By the time you record it and do it and try to copy it, it's moved on.

It's not so much for me where you come from, who you are, what race you are. We're just human beings that are still a work in progress and there's a lot that we've got to overcome, so that we can all be equal.

Neither. I did not bring my crown, and the last thing I would want to do is get into politics.

The '70s were a hot time. You know? I was, like, the most calm of all my friends.

Love is a constant source of inspiration, surprise, and wonderment.

You can put things off until tomorrow but tomorrow may never come.

I wrote these two songs ["Coming Out of the Dark" and "Always Tomorrow"] as a celebration of hope. And, I want to send it out to all of those people who are suffering through this terrible disaster [Hurricane Katrina], and please know that you are not alone
and you will not be.

To know that everything we say and do to this new little human being may have a profound effect on him or her is a daunting obligation.

I wanted very badly to be a mum. I'm a very maternal person. But at the point that I met Emilio I was focusing on a career. I never would have thought that I would get married at 21 and much less be a mum by 23.

How can we expect something positive to come from all the negative that we put into this world?

[I would like to be] one of [the first pop singers to perform in a free Cuba]. I know the list is huge. And it would be hard to pull off
I'd have a lump as big as a tostone [fried green plantain] in my throat. But oh my God, what a dream
it would be the height of my personal and professional career.

There is nothing better than humor to keep a marriage going.

When you're a front man for a band, there's nowhere to hide. It took me a long time to get used to that. But music is my first love. I started singing when I talked.

There's some people that are 24 hours with the baby and it doesn't make a difference. They could be anywhere.

Stevie Wonder always smells so good ... I'm like a DEA dog, I can smell people a block away!

Music has been so healing in my life, so the fact that my music could be that for someone else is the best gift of my whole career. People have told me that they got married to my music, divorced to my music, and played my music while they were having their baby.

It's very tough for a woman in the music business, and he really was such a motivator from the beginning, when I was super-shy, and he saw a lot in me on a personal level that he knew could carry through on the stage.

I've been offered a lot of things that celebrities do that I wouldn't do, like perfumes, lines of clothing and this, that and the other.

I spent my childhood alone, overweight and ugly, angry at everything, and knowing nothing of a life beyond this sadness.

When I write a song it's always from the point of view: makes the song the best it can be.

I'm careful what I put out there into the universe, musically. I don't take it lightly.

I'd love to have a program like 'Dr. Laura.' I studied psychology at the University of Miami, and when I rode the bus home from school, perfect strangers would strike up conversations with me and end up telling me their life stories. I think they could sense that I was studying to help people. That, or I have a face like a priest.

Sometimes parents, when they have a lot of small children, it's hard because your time's got to get divvied up. There's no other way.

I've sung since I talked, when I'm two, but what I sang was ballads, because it's very hard to do a dance track with your little acoustic guitar when you're a kid.

My mum had a very strong moral code, which I kind of came with. I never really had to be told what was right or wrong - I knew. I was very mature from early on and I was a very good girl, so she never had any trouble with me.

I wrote poetry, which got me into lyrics. Stevie Wonder, Carole King, Elton John pulled me into pop. I started singing with a band - just for fun - when I was 17. And pretty soon, I was thinking I could sing pop in English as well as Spanish.

Sometimes my mother had difficulty communicating with me about certain topics.

I am trying to teach my children to feel a responsibility for their fellow human beings and a sense of connection with ... the world around them.

I wouldn't recommend working with your partner for everyone, because it's tough. There's got to be a really keen balance. You've got to know when to stop being the manager and become the husband. I can't go home and complain to my husband about my manager.

The part of my education that has had the deepest influence wasn't any particular essay or even a specific class, it was how I was able to apply everything I learned in the library to certain situations in my life ... The library takes me away from my everyday life and allows me to see other places and learn to understand other people unlike myself.

Once you know the Romance languages, singing in those languages is so sexy and sensual. I do have a global audience, so why not?

The last thing I wanted to do was put politics into my music ... because music was my escape.

I stare to memorize your face, to kiss you in my mind, love you all the time.

People tend to forget that celebrities are human beings. We live our lives. We try to do what we love, which is music. And to share it with everyone in our job usually is to entertain and to make people forget their troubles.

I received an award for 25 million in [album] sales the night before the bus accident [in 1990].

[After a poor prognosis for recovery from her doctor following her 1990 bus accident] I said if it is up to me, I'm going to be OK.

Everything that an artist does is a risk. Some people want you to stay the same. If you want to evolve, they want to keep you in a certain place.

Toys are not a need people typically think of, but they've got all these kids who have absolutely nothing to do.

I think we should all live the moment. But you also have to think ahead. You have to think, 'Am I going to be happy with this five, ten years from now? Is it going to let me evolve and grow, or am I going to grow to one day wish I had never done it?' Sometimes you just have to think a little bit ahead.

You've got a new Spanish-language album out now ["90 Millas," released in September of 2007], and the single ["No Llores"] is #1 on the Billboard Latin chart.

I only used my whole life one perfume: and it's Cartier's Le Must.

Performing is one of the best feelings I know!

I left Cuba when I was two years old. They took away my country, they stole the most intimate thing a human being can have. How could I forget that Fidel Castro was the person who did me so much harm?

As an immigrant, I appreciate, far more than the average American, the liberties we have in this country. Silence is a big enemy of morality. I don't want our blunders in history to get repeated.

The challenge is always as a writer, is this going to work, because it's a very intimate process, and I tend to be very introverted and insular, and when I write, it's in my head.

The most beautiful thing about music is that it transcends most anything.

I don't want anything from Cuba. I want them to be free and enjoy the things I enjoy.

When you sing in English and Spanish, it's two completely different forms of expression and ... even the people who don't speak Spanish love to hear me sing in Spanish.

Family has always been the number one priority no matter what happens anywhere else.

The responsibility of carrying and bringing a new life into this world is one that cannot be taken lightly.

I dreamed of becoming a writer. And ... this dream is about to become a reality with the publication of my first, and hopefully not my last, children's book ...

You don't have to give up who you are to be successful just because you're different.

For I've finally realized, that I could be infinitely better than before, definitely stronger. I'll face whatever comes my way, I'll savor each moment of the day, Love as many people as I can along the way. Help someone who's given up, even if it's just to raise my eyes and pray.

We protect aspirin bottles in this country better than we protect guns from accidents by children.

I majored in Psychology in college. I was going to be a child psychologist.

I'm happy and I have a great life.

The script [for the movie based on the life of singer Connie Francis
"Who's Sorry Now?"] is finished and is in the hands of several artists to see if somebody wants to film at the start of [2006].

The secret of a long marriage is shaving your legs every day ... because it shows you still care.

The reason I'm not more political is because I have music. And from a young age, I needed it. After prison, my father came to America, joined the Army, fought in Vietnam - and was exposed to Agent Orange. He died a slow, horrible death. Music was my escape.

I have had a life in which I have had to face every big fear, and it has not been pleasant.

Esperando (Cuando Cuba Sea Libre) is probably one of the most personal songs from the new [September, 2007] CD, "90 Millas" ... as it really speaks about the celebration, nostalgia and emotion that will happen the day Cuba is free. If we're to move forward in Cuba, we really have to have a lot of forgiveness for each other and look towards the future.

Having felt people's love and support first hand through difficult moments in my life makes me feel it's our responsibility to help one another.

And, because of the life that I shared with these two amazing women [her mother and maternal grandmother] and the hardships and struggles that I saw them overcome, I learned an invaluable lesson: and that is that women can do anything we set our minds to ... and then some!

All I tell artists is, 'Do what you love. Never let anybody talk you into changing what your musical idea is just to try to get a hit, because you're chasing your tail that way. It's not going to happen, and if you're successful, you have to do it the rest of your life. Stay true to it and do it for the sake of the art.'

Well first of all, I'm a singer. I sing since I talk. So the great ballad singers, the people that sang with so much feeling, jazz, blues, all those singers, they were songs that I listened to, records that my mom played for me, and then later I bought.

My family was musical on both sides. My father's family had a famous flautist and a classical pianist. My mother won a contest to be Shirley Temple's double - she was the diva of the family. At 8, I learned how to play guitar. I used to play songs from the '20s, '30s and '40s in the kitchen for my grandmother.

Sometimes I tend to think in very methodical, very concise terms.

I think the business of music has really taken a huge hit. There's no doubt about it. But an artist is always going to produce their art, their music. They're going to paint, they're going to write.

I have a very open line of communication with both my children.

I wanted to talk to very young kids about self-image and about being different and how that can be your strength, especially from the immigrant perspective.

I'd like them to see that those things that set us apart or make us different can be wonderful contributions to the world around us. I'd like them to see that size and color are irrelevant to the dreams we envision for ourselves. And I'd also love for them to see that life is a journey, and every step of the way, we can learn something and become stronger and wiser.

How many chances do you get to do something new?

When I was a teenager, I was fat. I was shy. I wore glasses. I had a big eyebrow and hair all over my body. They were years of torture.

I doubt that Fidel will ever come back to power. I think he is slowly going to the great beyond. Too slowly ... he could have gone a long time ago.

A lot of the way I sing is playing off other musicians. It's what I love to do the most.

There's no reason that just because you're a celebrity you can't write.

My friends call me 'Dolittle One' [a reference to her physical stature and affinity for animals].

My mom was an amazing singer and music was a big part of my life, so I grew up listening to Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, Henry Mancini; I used to watch 'The Andy Williams Show' on TV. I was very musical, so I was watching stuff that most kids my age wouldn't be interested in.

You never know what life has in store for you, but I believe there are certain things one is meant to go through

The greatest feeling is to have somebody that's so happy to see you.

It's crucial with today's challenges that our children feel they have a source of information they can trust in their parents.

My grandmother would shanghai pilots at the Havana airport so they'd bring me cartons of mango baby food
the only kind I'd eat. I learned to eat peach later. And in every carton, she'd slip in a Cuban record.

Then [after Castro dies and her triumphal return to Havana], at last, I could sing for my people.

A parent that's upset or resentful is not going to be a great paren.

There are certain realities we must speak of with our children that were not present when I was a child.