Alicia Keys Quotes & Sayings

There are so many things where I realize, like, simple circumstance, like the simple choice that I made one night to not do that and to do this, one night could have changed everything. — Alicia Keys

Not because I'm trying to be fabulous, but I love those big crazy Jackie O shades. — Alicia Keys

Sometimes you just have to do whats best for yourself. — Alicia Keys

When I did get signed and I was going around letting people know what I was about, that's exactly how I did it: me on the piano, playing a couple of songs I'd written and talking to the people in between. That's how I got my performance chops up. — Alicia Keys

A good friend of mine told me you should take a break and you should go see the world. Go somewhere. That is when I chose to go to Egypt, and so I took this beautiful trip to Egypt. It was the first time ever in my whole life I took three weeks off, and I sailed down the Nile and I saw the tombs and the temples, and I experienced a place that was so magical and so incredibly powerful and intelligent and inspiring. — Alicia Keys

Good food is an amazing blessing. Whenever you can sit down at a table, eat food that is extremely delicious, and are surrounded by people you love ... it's: Wow, life is good. — Alicia Keys

I was tired and I had overworked myself and burnt myself out. So I went to Egypt by myself. When I saw what was built there, it made me understand how powerful we are, that we can create anything. And I felt like I needed to create things that were timeless too. — Alicia Keys

Business can change you, and chew you up, and spit you out, and be rid of you, and on to the next thing. That's why it's so important to know who you are and stand up for something. — Alicia Keys

I have big everything on the bottom, but I love my legs. You've got to love what's yours. — Alicia Keys

Something I've learned from people like U2, the Stones and Lenny Kravitz is that the grind of live shows is so necessary [to build your career]. — Alicia Keys

Sometimes I feel like I don't belong anywhere, & it's gonna take so long for me to get to somewhere, Sometimes I feel so heavy hearted, but I can't explain cuz I'm so guarded. But that's a lonely road to travel, and a heavy load to bear. And it's a long, long way to heaven but I gotta get there
Can you send an angel?
Can you send me an angel ... to guide me. — Alicia Keys

Sometimes I've gotten photographs back and people have literally shaven off pieces of me, and I tell them to put it back. — Alicia Keys

Love me like you'll never see me again. — Alicia Keys

I was so deeply involved in music, I had already outgrown all the pressure of high school cliques and gossip. — Alicia Keys

Through the shake of an earthquake I will never fall. That's how strong my love is. — Alicia Keys

I grew up around the theatre. My mother is an actress. I would fall asleep on tons of theatre chairs. It's in my blood; it's in my spirit and my fabric of who I am. — Alicia Keys

I really like to live my life in a low-key fashion. — Alicia Keys

You can't really compare people. That's one of the biggest lessons I've learned, because comparing yourself to someone else really stops you from being who you are. — Alicia Keys

I'm so grateful that I can play and that I can execute what I hear in my head, because that's the tricky part. — Alicia Keys

I love my heritage! I have my mother, who is an Irish-Italian, and my father who is African, so I have the taste buds of an Italian and the spice of an African. — Alicia Keys

What breaks my heart is suffering of any kind. Too often, our world is divisive and cruel where it needs to be uniting and loving. — Alicia Keys

Falling down ain't falling down, If you don't cry when you hit the floor, It's called the past cause I'm getting past, And I ain't nothing like I was before, You ought to see me now — Alicia Keys

Our mission goes beyond commerce, it goes beyond technology. Our intent is to preserve music's importance in our lives, music is the language of love, of laughter, of heartbreak, of mystery. It's the world's true, true, without question, universal language. — Alicia Keys

I do feel like I owe something, but not to the industry. When you say "industry," I think of a group of people who don't really care much about you and treat you as a commodity. So, in that regard, I don't feel like I owe anything. But the people who've always been supportive of me and have always seen me for my greatest potential-those are the people who I feel like I owe something to. I feel like I am their voice. I owe it them to represent them in a way that they can be proud of. — Alicia Keys

And I love kick boxing. It's a lot of fun. It gives you a lot of confidence when you can kick somebody in the head. — Alicia Keys

Things can be really empty in this world, and I don't just mean the music world. It can become a very meaningless place if you don't really understand: 'who am I? Why am I here? What am I doing?' To feel fulfilment and have a deeper level of understanding, personally, that is the most important thing. — Alicia Keys

Everything you want to be, you already are. You're simply on the path to discovering it. — Alicia Keys

Why give up before we try
Feel the lows before the highs
Clip our wings before we fly away
I can't say I came prepared
I'm suspended in the air
Won't you come be in the sky with me — Alicia Keys

I loved grand pianos and small pianos, too. — Alicia Keys

I wouldn't mind being in one place for two months or so. It really doesn't sound so bad! — Alicia Keys

Cause I am a Superwoman,
Yes I am,
Yes she is,
Even when I'm a mess,
I still put on a vest,
With an S on my chest,
Oh yes,
I'm a Superwoman,
...
And all my sisters,
Coming together,
Say yes I will,
Yes I can — Alicia Keys

You are what you listen to — Alicia Keys

A lot of people, they've been saying to me, oh don't get married. It ruins everything. And I'm like, damn. — Alicia Keys

Yes I was burned but I called it a lesson learned. Mistake overturned so I call it a lesson learned. My soul has returned so I call it a lesson learned ... another lesson learned — Alicia Keys

I'm a very positive person, but this whole concept of having to always be nice, always smiling, always happy, that's not real. It was like I was wearing a mask. I was becoming this perfectly chiselled sculpture, and that was bad. That took a long time to understand. — Alicia Keys

I grew up in the middle of everything. I walked the streets alone, I rode the trains alone, I came home at three in the morning alone; that was what I did. — Alicia Keys

I'm not ashamed of what I am and that I have curves and that I'm thick. I like my body. — Alicia Keys

I like to do outdoorsy things: hikes, trails, running, swimming. I love the sun. I'm all about the warmth. — Alicia Keys

The desire to play has always been in me. I remember my first experience at about four or five of really dying to sing and dying to play that came from no one telling me to do so. — Alicia Keys

Music is funny. I shouldn't even ever talk about music, because you can have all the ideas in your head, and it never goes exactly the way that you think it's gonna go. — Alicia Keys

As a lyricist, you love to hear other great lyrics or other great concepts. — Alicia Keys

Love will come find you
Just to remind you
Of who you are
[ ... ] See that's the thing about love
[ ... ] Then life
It will embrace you
Totally amaze you
So you don't give up — Alicia Keys

I think following my instinct has proven to lead me in the right direction, and it's hard to hear sometimes, because it's a noisy world and there's a lot of people talking to you. — Alicia Keys

At the end of the day, so many things that we hold so much value with, it just doesn't even mean anything. I really try to stay focused on being really positive. — Alicia Keys

The most important thing is to be proud of the work that you put into something, and put the ego aside. — Alicia Keys

I think being really connected to a higher power, of having a spirituality to me, has been really good for me and I pray all the time. — Alicia Keys

Only joy comes from song. — Alicia Keys

Once people see this 'Unplugged,' I just want them to feel the spontaneity, to feel passionate ... I want you to see another side of me, that's free, and feel where my head is, where whatever happens, happens. I want you to feel inspired. — Alicia Keys

Create the world you want, and fill it with the opportunities that matter to you. — Alicia Keys

I've learned that while I'd be a fool not to stay open to the advice and experiences of the smart, amazing people in my life, I also need to listen to what I have to say. — Alicia Keys

I was just talking to Bono the other day, and he was like, "Are you doing shows?" I've just been off the road for a month-and-a-half, and he was like, "You lucky girl." — Alicia Keys

I learned the cello , but I would still need a massive amount of practice. But I do play classical music, so I understand where that comes from. — Alicia Keys

I realize that I want something more. Success is great, but then you also wake up in your hotel room at four in the morning and you're like, wouldn't it be nice to have someone here with me. — Alicia Keys

I have solid decent people around me, and I believe that is all it is, because you will get destroyed if you have people bringing you down. — Alicia Keys

I think I grew up really fast; I grew up in this really fast-paced business, and I never understood what it meant to take a break or take time off or recover, and I paid for it. — Alicia Keys

I love the written word so much, I know it's gonna flow naturally. — Alicia Keys

I believe in the limitlessness of humans. We're capable of incredible things. At times, that realization is frightening. — Alicia Keys

My mother is an actress, and she used to drag me from theater to theater and reading to reading. — Alicia Keys

We have the potential to help people out of poverty, out of disease, out of slavery and out of conflict. Too often, we turn the other way because we think there's nothing we can do. — Alicia Keys

I've always been strong-minded, but I wonder. — Alicia Keys

The climate of today is not really focused as much as it was then on being able to speak about different cultural issues or different situations that were going on politically. — Alicia Keys

We are all one. We're not as separate as we oftentimes think. — Alicia Keys

My life is rich because I have those kinds of people in my life. — Alicia Keys

Mozart would play a counterpart with his left hand while using his right to mock it. It was blue, dark, shadowy - and it made me feel something. That's when I realized music was inside me. — Alicia Keys

Soul music is timeless. — Alicia Keys

I've always been very private, maybe because I discovered my mother, who is a wonderful lady, is very emotional. — Alicia Keys

My mom is definitely my rock. — Alicia Keys

It's when we become afraid of everything and worried about everything that you are never going to reach your highest potential. — Alicia Keys

You're stronger, and you're better, and you're
ready for whatever. — Alicia Keys

I play Beethoven and Bach. At the same
time, Biggie is my dog. — Alicia Keys

But when I first fell in love with the piano, I knew it was me. I was dying to play. — Alicia Keys

You just can't take a day for granted. We had to work really hard for anything, and so that's been instilled in me. And I don't look at myself as better than anybody else, because in an instant everything can change. — Alicia Keys

The artists who have inspired me the most in my life are the ones who have really had something to say and stand up for. That, to me, is part of being an artist-having the voice to express things that need to be verbalized and brought to light. Unfortunately, I don't think that's a priority for people, because the few artists who do have the nerve to take a stand for what they believe get shut down in a way. — Alicia Keys

What acting does bring that music doesn't bring for me is the opportunity is the opportunity to be completely different in every way from whom you normally are, the person that you are when you wake up in the morning is who you are in your life. But to take that and have the opportunity to be the complete opposite of that, is the excitement of it. — Alicia Keys

I believe Aids is the most important issue we face, because how we treat the poor is a reflection of who we are as a people. — Alicia Keys

If I can remain excited about the music that I'm giving you, then you're damn sure going to be excited about it. — Alicia Keys

A lot of times I watch TV and I watch film and there's so many things I'd love to talk about that I feel don't get the opportunity to be shown. Sometimes things become very stereotypical and one-sided, and I feel like it's such a colorful world. — Alicia Keys

The last thing I want is to walk into my house after a long day and see all the Grammys and awards. It would make me feel weird. — Alicia Keys

I know people who've gone to jail. It don't mean you stop loving them! They deservin' love just as much in there, and maybe they needin' it more. — Alicia Keys

I love children and I love family and I love that interaction. Because I had a really close relationship with my mother, I understand that deep powerful love, and it's so beautiful. To be a mother to a child is the most brilliant gift; it's gorgeous. — Alicia Keys

Sometimes I feel good, at times I feel used. Loving you darling, makes me so confused. — Alicia Keys

Be driven, be focused, but enjoy every moment, because it only happens once. — Alicia Keys

I personally feel that acting is not totally different from singing and being a musician. — Alicia Keys

I was always amazed the way people would come in looking one way and transform completely to the point where I couldn't recognize their language, their accent, the way they looked, their hair, their face even changed becoming so inside of the character. — Alicia Keys

My mixed-race background made me a broad person, able to relate to different cultures. But any woman of colour, even a mixed colour, is seen as black in America. So that's how I regard myself. — Alicia Keys

Hand me the world on a silver platter, and what good would it be? — Alicia Keys

When you're talented, you're talented. — Alicia Keys

There was no other path for me. I knew this was my path. I had to follow it. — Alicia Keys

I've always valued the input of the people I love. So in the past, whenever I'd make a decision - what to wear to an event, whether to pursue a job opportunity - I'd consult those closest to me, like my mother, husband, or manager. — Alicia Keys

Sometimes
Some lies
Can take a minute
To fully realize
His tears
Your eyes
Thirty seconds to apologize
You give it one more chance
Just like the time before
But he already know you'd give a hundred more
Until that night in bed
You wake up in a sweat
You're racing to the door
Can't take it anymore — Alicia Keys

Failure isn't an option. I've erased the word 'fear' from my vocabulary, and I think when you erase fear, you can't fail. — Alicia Keys

Maturity and experience are part of my liberation. — Alicia Keys

I think it's the ego in us that screws us up. — Alicia Keys

How terrible would it have been if I had come out with some watered-down version of who I am? People fell in love with the real me, and I still feel blessed that that was how the journey began. — Alicia Keys

If you treat me fairly, I'll give you all my goods. — Alicia Keys

Everything's gonna be alright. — Alicia Keys

I feel like B sides are always better, no matter whose record it is. — Alicia Keys

To be able to help a 13-year-old kid from the Bronx follow her dreams just by letting her know she's not forgotten in this crazy world - that's why I got involved with Frum Tha Ground Up. — Alicia Keys

I would hate to make music and people love me for something that isn't me. — Alicia Keys

I just wanted to be who I was, which was like so many other girls I knew. We grew up in the city, had a hard edge and obstacles to overcome, but we were still young and beautiful. I didn't want to be all dressed up, all made up - I wanted to be myself, which hadn't been done before. — Alicia Keys