Mary J. Blige Quotes

I didn't know how to show my self love, and I didn't want anyone else to hurt me. So my tough girl attitude was like, 'I'm not having it.'

I'm my worst critic, and I like the fact that I can listen to myself now and make fun of myself, listen, make changes - 'Oh, man, that's messed up. Okay, I need to work on that; I need to work on this.'

It hurts a lot when you cannot really comprehend what a person is saying in a meeting, or you don't even understand what you're reading in your contract.

For the first time in my life, I'm proud of myself.

I'm hoping that my entrepreneurial side will have me at a place where I don't have to do anything. That's what I'm striving for.

I believe that anything man himself can do for me, God can do for me in a greater way. I decided to pray and to seek God on my own. I just stayed in The Word. And it worked.

I don't listen to people's opinions. I have people around me who I can trust, but most of all I listen to myself.

I used to think I was ugly. I thought I looked like a camel. A person who doesn't love themselves, they will see anything that pops up on their face. I've seen squirrels, I've seen a bird, and I've seen all kinds of animals on my face. But that is the result of self-hate. I've learned to say: 'You know what? I am a beautiful black woman'.

Your circumstances do not make you who you are!

Without your health, everything else means nothing.

In the studio you can really concentrate on performing the song where as on stage you also have to worry about connecting with so many people, they're definitely different.

I'm going down! Because you ain't around, baby, my whole world's upside down!

There's not enough time to be disrespecting ... Life is too short.

I'm searching for a real love.

I listen to gospel music.

I like to do interior design, I love to quilt, I love to see different colors together, and I love to match things up.

Two hurt people can not help each other. They can not.

Really, every woman is an example to me, because as women we go through so much pain. We have to live this perfect life when we are messed up inside. We all go through trials and tribulations.

I think women should band together to get us more respect in all the businesses that we're in because, you know, if we turn 40, we're nothing and nobody. We all should band together and just say we're not gonna go down like that.

I was inspired to create 'My Life' so I could finally share a personal part of my life beyond my music.

I hated myself for so many reasons, and I thought so many things were my fault that happened to me growing up.

You have to have a plan. Everything has to be planned. For me, I start with the title of my album, before I even start with the songs. I write down different things that I want album to say, and then the songs come from the different words.

I like French fries; I like mashed. I love potatoes.

I wish I had an extra day with my mom sometimes. Or another hour in the day with my family, husband and children.

When I was a kid, I needed to sing because it makes me feel good about myself. It makes me feel good, period.

I do consider myself part of black history.

The younger Mary J. Blige, I would call her, she was very unaware, ignorant.

God comes first - if I don't love him, I can't love anybody, and if I can't love me I can't love nobody.

People know what they see but they don't know what's happening inside. If you want to know who you are and how you feel about yourself, take a look at your environment.

I grew up watching MTV, when Journey was huge, when Pat Benatar had 'Love Is a Battlefield,' and my friends and I used to cut school to watch this woman in the video. We loved Pat Benatar.

I believe there are certain things that God uses to get us out of a bad situation, and I believe music was one of the things he used for me.

The music business is really, really small. The real music is becoming almost extinct, if you don't stay true to who you are.

Then my life crashed and burned down: trials, men, drama, no self-love, no identity. A little identity, but not a lot of love for myself, my life.

Everything is scary if you look at it. So you just got to live.

Nowadays, with the state of the music business, for any artist, whether you're up-and-coming or you've been in it for awhile, you have to explore different revenues and different ways of expressing yourself.

I just want fans to walk away knowing that no matter what's going on, no matter how happy you are, no matter how sad you are, we did it. We're strong in this. We've come a long way, and life is not just one thing.

When you know what pain is, and when you have to make a choice, you learn that it is a decision. People think it's a fairytale thing, love and happiness, but you have to work hard. And then - you feel it deeply.

Just don't let the hype of what people are saying and how much they love you, y'know, just take the compliment and be thankful that people are complimenting you, but don't let it consume you; don't let your circumstances around you and the way people view you make you act a certain way.

It's OK showing yourself some love.

I had to learn how to trust my gut. Trust what I know to be right ... not right, but not waver on who I am. Know who I am, know what I want, and know it. Not waver on it and be secure in that. And I still struggle with it. But I really ... I can't be moved. You can't move me, and that all comes with loving myself, and I'm like my best buddy.

I remember a time when all my fans were crying and sad and going through hell. Now, we're trying to uplift each other and accept ourselves for who we are, even if nobody else does.

When someone comes up to me and says, 'Mary, you helped save my marriage', or, 'Mary, you helped me get out of this abusive relationship', I'm in it, really in their lives. And I'm so passionate about my feelings, but also about showing people the way through theirs.

When you finally understand who you are, ages 6 through 60 will understand who you are. Because when they see a person that's come through all that I've come through, still standing, it's amazing.

If you're looking for inner peace from the outside world, you're not going to get that. The inner peace starts with looking at you from the inside. Understanding that everything that comes to you is what you are. Everything from friends to boyfriends to the job you get - it's all a direct reflection of what you are on the inside.

One day I realized that I wasn't getting anywhere by blaming other people for my circumstances. I finally understood: Even if you feel someone has wronged you or owes you something, no one is going to give you anything for free.

I decided to start my own label because so many people with talent come to me wanting to know how they can get in the music business.

I didn't never have to go to a therapist. I just always put it in a song and you heard me.

Music makes us want to live. You don't know how many times people have told me that they'd been down and depressed and just wanted to die. But then a special song caught their ear and that helped give them renewed strength. That's the power music has.

Sometimes I frown and I don't realise it.

Love is wonderful, amazing, and the best thing that can happen to us.

When life is real, it's not going to be smooth.

Don't give up, be positive and if you know someone who knows someone at a record company don't stop beating down their door till you get heard. Don't ever say it'll never happen or it'll never happen.

I don't want no drama in my life, even though we have a little bit, but no more letting people control you. That's drama, because then you become something that you're not.

If you're here right now in your life, your journey continues and you've lived to tell the story.

My main exercise is cardio. The treadmill is fine, but running outdoors gives me the best results. I try to log 6 to 8 miles a week. I could be in the worst mood, but when I do my cardio, I feel much, much better.

So many people are like, 'I'm perfect.' I'm so imperfect; that's why I'm able to let everything out and let people see everything. 'Cause I'm just a mess like every other person that's a mess out there.

It was only for two years, and I jumped from family to family. It's very scary.

I cannot save the world; that's not what I'm trying to do. I guess I'm just trying to walk the walk and be an example to those that want it. Not everybody does, but if Mary J. Blige can come out of that same hole you were in, then you can do it, too - that's my goal: to do that without saying it, but actually live it.

Growing up, I was the preferred hairstylist for all of my friends.

Working in the studio is a more personal experience whereas on stage in front of a billion people, its more exciting performing live.

I barely have time for my own children. To adopt more children and not have time for them, that would be poor parenting on my part.

You have to create different things, either through lighting or changing the format of the songs and how you're going to sing them, and even sometimes props.

When you come from so many damaged places you don't ever want to spiral back there, so you gotta continue to check yourself.

I can't just make a song people can dance in a club to ... it still has to be real.

When you're going to do whatever you're going to do, you have to get your, put your mind into it.

I'm a child of God. God is my mommy, my daddy. That's the only thing that'll keep my head up. If I don't remember who I am in him, I'm done.

You can't get around pain and opposition, but you can try to be joyful in the trial, and thank yourself for the trial, and thank God for the strength to get through it.

By the time I was a teenager, when I went outside the house, it was about hip-hop all the time. Nothing but hip-hop, block parties.

When you tell your truth, you are coming from a real place, so you are automatically a leader.

I like hanging out with me, and I've accepted everything about me good, bad whatever it is. That's why I'm able to, that's why no one can tell me anything negative about myself.

There's so many things that life is, and no matter how many breakthroughs, trials will exist and we're going to get through it. Just be strong.

That's the message I want to give to every up-and-coming artist: Do everything that is going to help you later. If you clone somebody else, that's all they're gonna keep wanting from you.

I like what I see when I'm looking at me when I'm walking past the mirror,

The only person that I'm really feeling - because she has an identity of her own, even though she has listened to Mary J. Blige - is Jill Scott.

So as long as I'm a human being and I'm not perfect, I'm able to say I'm having some growing pains. Because in order to sustain where you are once you made such a breakthrough that everyone is looking at you, now everyone is like, 'Ooh, is she gonna make a mistake?' Yes, I'm going to make a mistake. Yes, I'm still gonna do things.

My journey continues, because I've, you know, conquered a lot. And I know how to conquer the rest.

I blame my mother for nothing, but forgive her for everything.

I believe this generation should know their history and they should know that the struggle's not over yet.

I truly enjoy Bono. I think he is an amazing person; I love him.

I wouldn't adopt, but what I will do is give my time and go and try to be there for people.

You can hate me. You can go out there and say anything you want about me, But you will love me later because I told you the truth.

My first album is playful.

You can look at my palm and see the storm coming. Read the book of my life and see I've overcome it.

I always want to be a messenger, a person that, you know, that's not afraid to pass on wisdom.

Life is full of trials and tribulations. It's dramatic when you don't treat people right when you're in the tribulations, but I know now how to get out of it. You have to make a decision to say 'No more', and then you know what to do when the trials happen.

In your life there's peaks and valleys and sometimes we regress, and we don't even know we regress. You just have to learn how to accept all of your mistakes and learn to love yourself again.

I've been a tomboy my whole life. But then you get older, you get married, you soften up.

Once you climb to another level, you have to figure out how to sustain it.

Larry David makes me laugh.

It's challenging to find an identity as a young person if you don't have the sustenance of love, because you're being shipped around.

You demand respect and you'll get it. First of all, you give respect.

I care about me now. When I didn't care about me, I was, like, 'Why is this going wrong? Why is my life so bad?' But when you don't care about yourself, nobody else is going to care about you. So I learned to love myself, even if nobody else does.

I just love food, period.

I can go out raw with nothing, and my fans would still be happy, but I feel that I owe it to them to give them almost like a Broadway musical at this point in my life. I have to give them something more, so I do have to think of different ways to do it.

When I was five years old I was molested and just, you know. I remember feeling, literally right before it happened, I just could not believe that this person was going to do this to me. That thing followed me all my life. The shame of thinking my molestation was my fault - it led me to believe I wasn't worth anything.

I don't think there's anything they can say about me that I haven't said about myself already. And I would be an absolute total liar, and my fans would not respect me, if I said that my life and my marriage are perfect. But we absolutely love each other; we have fun together - it's great.

I believe there should be no more drama, but it's everywhere you go. It's just about how you get out. You've gotta bob and weave because it's everywhere. How do I keep the drama low? It's about using your head.

If I'm going to be the best in what I do, I have to study what I'm doing, I have to see what I'm doing. I have to see it, I have to hear it. I'm just starting to appreciate myself - not starting, but appreciating myself in a way where I can look at myself back in a movie or listen to myself as much as I do now.

You either learn from your experiences or go back and do the same thing, and I learned from my experiences.

I don't know what kind of God the rest of y'all are serving, but the God I serve says, 'Mary, you need to be the hottest thing this year, and I'm gonna make sure you're doing that.'