"I don't write songs about a specific, elusive thing. I write about love, and everyone knows what it is like to have your heart broken."

"I love a card. You know, cards? At birthdays? I collect them."

"I'm a big personality. I walk into a room, big and tall and loud."

"There is nothing that would upset me more than my dad being bribed by the press. It's like, 'Just let them run it, then. Don't you give them ammunition.'"

"People are starting to go on about my weight but I'm not going to change my size because they don't like the way I look."

"I've always written down how I feel."

"I believe in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

"I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature."

"People think that I popped out of my mother's womb singing 'Chasing Pavements'."

"My life is full of drama, and I don't have time to worry about something as petty as what I look like."

"My worst fear is my music won't connect with the public."

"I love a bit of drama. That's a bad thing. I can flip really quickly."

"There will be no new music until it's good enough and until I'm ready."

"I've never wanted to look like models on the cover of magazines. I represent the majority of women and I'm very proud of that."

"You have to prioritize what you stress about when you have a child."

"I have insecurities of course, but I don't hang out with anyone who points them out to me."

"I'm really happy to be me, and I'd like to think people like me more because I'm happy with myself and not because I refuse to conform to anything."

"I like having my hair and face done, but I'm not going to lose weight because someone tells me to. I make music to be a musician not to be on the cover of Playboy."

"Singleness of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success in life, no matter what may be one's aim."

"I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living."

"The most important thing for a young man is to establish credit - a reputation and character."

"Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it."

"If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it."

"It is wrong to assume that men of immense wealth are always happy."

"The only question with wealth is, what do you do with it?"

"I know of nothing more despicable and pathetic than a man who devotes all the hours of the waking day to the making of money for money's sake."

"Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people."

"I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure."

"I don't make music for eyes. I make music for ears."

"I just want to make music, I don't want people to talk about me. All I've ever wanted to do was sing. I don't want to be a celebrity. I don't want to be in people's faces, you know, constantly on covers of magazine that I haven't even known I'm on."

"The thought of someone spending $20 to come and see me and saying, 'Oh, I prefer the record and she's completely shattered the illusion' really upsets me. It's such a big deal that people come give me their time."

"I like looking nice, but I always put comfort over fashion. I don't find thin girls attractive; be happy and healthy. I've never had a problem with the way I look. I'd rather have lunch with my friends than go to a gym."

"Mum loves me being famous! She is so excited and proud, as she had me so young and couldn't support me, so I am living her dream, it's sweeter for both of us. It's her 40th birthday soon and I'm going to buy her 40 presents."

"If I am constantly working, my relationships fail. So at least now I can have enough time to write a happy record. And be in love and be happy. And then I don't know what I'll do. Get married. Have some kids. Plant a nice vegetable patch."

"I get so nervous on stage I can't help but talk. I try. I try telling my brain: stop sending words to the mouth. But I get nervous and turn into my grandma. Behind the eyes it's pure fear. I find it difficult to believe I'm going to be able to deliver."

"I've been singing properly every day since I was about fifteen or sixteen, and I have never had any problems with my voice, ever. I've had a sore throat here and there, had a cold and sung through it, but that day it just went while I was onstage in Paris during a radio show. It was literally like someone had pulled a curtain over it."

"I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity an obligation; every possession, a duty."

"The most important thing for a young man is to establish a credit... a reputation, character."

"Competition is a sin."

"Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great."

"Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It's to see my dividends coming in."

"The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets."

"If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success."

"I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity."

"I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity an obligation; every possession a duty."

"Every right implies a responsibility; Every opportunity, an obligation, Every possession, a duty."

"The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee and I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun."

"[But longtime friend and competitor Robert Johnson, who founded BET, says,] To me, his achievements would rival those of any business person in America, ... He had charisma, tenacity and passion to convince people that there was such a thing as a black consumer market."

"A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship."

"I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature."