Solange Knowles Quotes

Mainstream media tends to showcase a very specific kind of Mardi Gras, but my experience of Mardi Gras is very different; it's very cultural.

I'm super-sensitive when it comes to my sister. I've been known to snap off a little bit behind her.

I actually produced other people's vocals for a long time when I first signed my publishing deal and I had just sort of decided that I only wanted to be a writer. I would be in all of these writing sessions, and a lot of times my publisher would say, "You should get a demo singer to sing it because then it doesn't identify as a Solange song."

I love music. But I'm not gonna work myself to death. If there ever comes a point where I'm not enjoying it, then I'm not gonna do it anymore. I've promised myself that. I've written it down on paper and signed a contract.

Major labels act as banks in terms of how they produce and release your album. No major label is really good or bad; they just 100 per cent operate as a business, which makes sense ... no hard feelings.

I'd rather be the cool aunt than the authoritative aunt.

I think there's just certain lyrics and certain forms of hip-hop that definitely rang true, again, to a lot of people's truth, but you don't necessarily want to hear someone using that as a just kind of a in-the-moment, fun, careless expression.

Colors and prints are part of my style.

People from New Orleans are extremely prideful.

Traveling is definitely something that your average 17-year-old doesn't get to do. One week we're in Japan, one week we're in Australia, one week we're back home going to football games.

My earliest love, which was sort of an obsession, actually, was Nas. I was in seventh grade, I believe, when 'Nastradamus' was out, and I took it pretty far.

From a very early age, I decided that I wanted to be able to do my music but still be able to live a normal life.

I think that some people get wrapped up in their own egos. They need to see certain album sales and certain monuments.

I'm not sure if it's cause I'm getting old, but my heels have to be 3.5 inch or less, or a chunky heel.

A lot of people don't know me as an artist.

I'd rather be the protector than the protected. I'm naturally the protector - being a mother and having a famous family. You have to navigate when it's right to protect.

My sound is Solange. It's definitely not Destiny's Child.

Fashion is a strange world sometimes. Amazing, but strange.

I've always loved Dusty Springfield and Martha Reeves.

I never borrowed clothes from Beyonce when we were growing up. But now my style is a little more tame and hers is a little more adventurous.

Anytime fashion and music go hand-in-hand and it really is an organic fit, it's amazing.

You just have to know that the more successful you get as an artist, the less of a normal life you have. It's a trade-off.

I'm such a Southern girl.

I always have looked at "indie" as a term of "independence." Never associated a sonic gesture with that in the same way that pop music has always meant "popular" to me it didn't define a sound. And I think now that has been the context for things. If something is indie, it almost has this sonic association with it, or pop has become this term of shame almost, like, bubblegum sweet pop.

I have to learn how to say no a lot. Life is too short for anything else.

I was diagnosed with ADHD twice. I didn't believe the first doctor who told me, and I had a whole theory that ADHD was just something they invented to make you pay for medicine, but then the second doctor told me I had it.

People who live in L.A. don't like to leave their homes because they have so much space. They have the nice kitchens and a cook and a pool. When you live in L.A., there is a sense of isolation in terms of raising a family.

In any relationship, there's gonna be conflict.

Every mom believes her kid's school doodles are amazing, and I'm no different.

He [ the son]'s grown up listening to all types of music, and the natural form of rebellion is to find the one genre that maybe he hasn't listened to and to make that his thing.

Why is it so important for you to give back? I honestly feel like it's our responsibility as citizens of the world to ground ourselves in selflessness and all do our part.

I try to transition my energy into just having fun.

I think it's really important for every mother to find their own way.

So over time, playing shows - after every show we would have pow-wow, I would have notes and we'd go over and we'd really restructure and re-do and now I feel really, really good about the show. But it's taken time.

My sister and I were not allowed expensive clothes. We so badly wanted these Fila sneakers as kids, but my mother took us down to the flea market and got imitation ones. Look at the early Destiny's Child videos. You'll see.

Opening Ceremony is my number one favorite place to shop here. It's the only place I'll shop in New York with my son. All of the sales people are so cool; the music is great; it's just like a big fun house, so he stays entertained.

I have a father who was the first black student at his junior high and high school and had to do a lot to get to that point.

I'm surrounded by such beautiful, creative people, and I just love sort of sharing their stories and their journeys.

I stand for people who are firm in their journey.

The Hadley Street Dream is a tribute to making a vision come to life. My father built a compound on a dessert city block, he saw something in that space we couldn't see. It was years later the album was born right there on Hadley St. He built the studio I started recording the album at.

I really wanted people just to get to know Solange on my first album, just to establish Solange's sound, just to establish Solange's personality.

My beauty ethos? Well, I'd love to tell you it's something like 'less is more,' but honestly, it all starts with happiness. If only someone could bottle that up - when I'm happy, I'm at my most radiant and glowing. It does me better than any product ever could. And I stand by how cheesy and cliched that sounds.

The one thing I'm really excited about is that the Saint Heron shop is not grounded in just fashion and clothing. We have connected with artists and artisans in every landscape.

I really feel like because I had my son so young, I didn't want everyone's help. I think people felt entitled to give advice, so I'm always very sensitive to moms and letting them feel their way out.

I'm not very good at writing songs when I have a lot of clutter in my mind.

Self-love is really a foundation for everything, and however you practice or express that is so, so important.

Both my parents are first-generation success stories.

I'm making the music I want to make, in my own space, and it's just incredible to be able to continue to do that.

My parents constantly tried to talk me out of being an artist. They had gone through the whole journey with my sister and just wanted me to have a normal teenage life.

My son spends as much time with his dad as he does with me.

I have always had tremendous respect for my sister as an artist, as a woman, and now as a mother.

It's so sad, actually, how teachers and parents tell their kids, 'You're never gonna be anything.'

I wear short shorts. After 10 years of strenuous ballet, it's the least my legs can do for me.

We are getting an education of a lifetime. We're actually out there in the real world.

As an artist, everybody has the opportunity to celebrate and speak their truth.

When you're younger, you get shoved a lot. You don't really have a say-so.

I have so many friends who are designers of color.

When Destiny's Child released their first record, I don't think I even noticed. I was still at school, and I had my own life in Houston.

I'm really good at telling people 'no.'

My ultimate beauty icon is Diana Ross.

I'm happy that I have a beautiful, wonderful, amazing child who's made me a better person.

I really enjoy my privacy and being able to walk my son to school every morning and pick him up every afternoon.

I'd rather live in the U.S. than Europe.

If I had to define 'sexy' now, as Disney as it sounds, I would have to say it's about complete and utter confidence.

Beyonce has set the tone as an aunt. I've set the tone as a mom.

I'd rather be on the cast of 'Love & Hip-Hop' than 'Project Runway.'

There's a lot of situations where I feel irony involved when R&B and hip-hop is expressed in the indie worlds. There's a lot of times when I feel like the juxtaposition becomes a thing.

My sister and I truly are best friends.

I love when rappers have a off-beat, very abstract timing, and he certainly did.And any rapper who really approaches rapping with the art form of songwriting melodically - I know a bunch of rappers who actually go in before they write the lyrics and come up with the melody. And you can hear and feel that difference so much when that's the case.

I'm a fan of hip-hop and I love it, I by no means am an expert on it.

There are a lot of historical lofts in Houston, and it's amazing for me that a lot of them were built in the 1920s. I love the exposed bricks and the very industrial stuff.

I have a lot of guy-like quintessential relationship qualities that I have had to work on.

You get educated by traveling.

I really don't listen to anyone that I'm not proud of saying that I listen to. Even if it's something a little bit more unexpected, I didn't get too deep into the Waka, Gucci records, but I like those with pride.

Whether it be a red eyeliner or a graphic line on the crease of my lids, I'm more attracted to the ideas of something interesting than being 'pretty.'

I had my own little quirks as a child.

Through style, you can communicate to the world who you are and what you stand for.

Luckily, I dated all of the losers ages ago. My love life has been stable for a while.

Motherhood is such an evolving journey.

I felt like when I took my weave out, I wasn't pretty, I wasn't noticeable.

With Saint Heron, I really wanted to celebrate and continue to cultivate the community for genre-defying R&B artists.

When you think back in history about producers and artists or writers who've had good synergy, a lot of times they date, or they're married, or there's a friendship and a kinship.

Beyonce adores my little boy. She takes him everywhere.

If I have on a bright red lip, you'll rarely ever catch me with eyeshadow on. It's one or the other for me - pick one feature for the day and really focus on that.

I feel like I was 30 when I was 17, and I decided to get married and have a baby.

It is always an honor to work with those that share your passion for music and just enjoy making great music.

I actually love my natural hair when it's in a twist out and it's been slept on for five days and revived by the steam of the shower.

Any decision I make is based on myself, and the only person I have to give an explanation to is God.

My parents only played Isley Brothers, Marvin Gaye. That's when New Kids came out, and we wanted to jam that. My mom was like, "Put that thing off and put my damn record on". So from old school to '90s to recent, it's just always been there.

Just going through a marriage and a divorce - which I essentially did by 21 - will give you an insane amount of perspective on life.

The Fela Kuti Queens - the band members and wives of the late African musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti - are my fashion icons.

I think all artists have a different story to tell, and no story is the same.

I have a mother who never took no for an answer when it came to her creative pursuits. She started a hair salon in her spare bedroom and four years later had 30 employees.

I grew up seeing my sister in the studio. I would go to recording sessions and take notes.