Janelle Monae Quotes

I feel myself becoming the fearless person I have dreamt of being. Have I arrived? No. But I'm constantly evolving and challenging myself to be unafraid to make mistakes.

I want people to know about these visionary artists. I want people to know what they stand for and (that) they are representing something unique, something fresh. I am just so excited about their careers.

People don't ask Jay-Z to take his shirt off when he rhymes,

I listen to Prince on my iPad. And I use a Chords & Scales app to warm up before performing.

I feel like Harriet Tubman, except I am trying to free people through underground music, to free themselves creatively and inspirationally.

I'm not a politician; I'm an artist.

Becoming a CoverGirl is truly an honor and a gift. It opens up a new platform for me to inspire women to feel stronger, braver and more beautiful inside and out.

You cannot police me, so get off my areola

I wanna scream and dream and throw a love parade / Is that okay?

I won't sit here and say I've never had a pimple, but I try to have a really great diet, you know, lots of vegetables and fish. And I think stress plays a huge part too.

Bring wings to the weak and bring grace to the strong
May all evil stumble as it flies in the world
All the tribes comes and the mighty will crumble
We must brave this night and have faith in love

I believe that imagination inspires nations. It's something that I live by.

I have not lost any of my crazy, fearless, raw, soulful, eclectic side and I plan on continuing to tell universal stories in an unforgettable way.

I believe it's time that women truly owned their superpowers and used their beauty and strength to change the world around them.

I've cried over string arrangements.

I think if people genuinely want to help ... that'll shine through, no matter what color or what race. We cannot see race before compassion.

The colors black and white are my uniform, to honor the working class. People like my parents, who were janitors and had to wear a uniform every day. It keeps me grounded.

People in my family and camp who grew up listening to rap music love 'We Are Young.' I've heard it play at weddings. I've heard it in graduation parties. It's a big idea and big song.

Part of what my music represents is to stand up and be the voice of those who feel like they are not heard and want to be treated with respect regardless of race, color, orientation - android, cyborg, whatever.

First, before I'm an artist, before I'm a celebrity, I'm a human being.

When I got into the music industry, I wasn't focused on being the most famous artist or even getting a major record deal. It was just to make music on my own terms or create my own image, do my own hair, do my own makeup.

Some songs you get. Some songs you may not. And I think that's the beauty of art: to question and to ask, to understand the deeper meaning after two or three or four listenings.

I love Fun. They're great guys. They're incredible artists and musicians.

I'm a believer that the more I'm giving, the happier I am, and the more beautiful my exterior will be.

I love great music and if it doesn't move me I don't listen to it.

Embrace what makes you unique, even if it makes others uncomfortable. i didn't have to become perfect because I've learned throughout my journey that perfection is the enemy of greatness.

Beauty is about enhancing what you have. Let yourself shine through.

Everything is about balance. You can't work, work, work, work without any play.

I love the mystery behind things.

When you realize it's your responsibility to be a leader and create the world that you want to see, you have to do it.

I'm attracted to things that scare me, like 'Psycho,' my favorite Hitchcock movie.

It's a big universe. To stay in one tiny place is doing a disservice to yourself.

I'm always thinking about young people first when I'm writing music. Whenever I can reach that young person and inspire them to go after their own dreams, start their own movement just like I did with Wondaland. Starting their own tribe and showing people that we are not all the same, we're not all monolithic. I think that's what it's all about for me.

My message is that I want to reach the people - the people who work each and every day.

I'm always thinking about that young girl or young boy who doesn't quite know if their music, their messaging, their imaging, their voice is going to pop, if people are going to understand them. So I represent the other and those who feel like they don't even want to be normal. They embrace the things that make them unique.

I always think about the next generation and creating a different blueprint for them. That's my goal: to let them know there's another way.

I know what I like; if you go to my closet, I have at least four of everything.

I don't even know at what age I started, because it's always been there. Performing ... creating ... it's in my DNA.

There are some groups that for years and years have not gotten the rights that the majority of human beings have, and it's important to continue to draw these parallels so that when we think about our future we can change some of the lives of people who love differently than we do, look different than we do, who come from a different class. It's all about bringing awareness to how important it is to be accepting of people, and there will be oppression if one group thinks they're more important or superior.

Honestly, I don't believe in menswear. I focus on what pieces are most timeless, transcendent, match my lifestyle, remain remarkable, and command intriguing attention across the room at an art gallery.

Android is a new form of the other, but you can parallel the other to so many different types of people. Even if you don't consider yourself to be the other, at one point in time I'm sure you felt like that.

I take goldenseal, Echinacea and cod liver oil when flying to boost my immune system.

Redefine what it means to be sexy and what it means to be a woman. Showing my skin is not what makes me sexy. I like skirts and dresses just like everyone else, but I had a message I needed to put out there. It was up to me to show people and young girls there was another way.

Children go with whatever makes them feel good - like if that's the color green or orange, they do that with their clothes. As I've grown older, everything reversed. My music, my personality - onstage those things became my colors.

Lauryn Hill, P-Funk, Marvin Gaye, Public Enemy - I have a very diverse palate for music. I can go from Judy Garland to Jimi Hendrix to Stevie Wonder to Rachmaninoff. I just love great music.