I think that everyone should get married at least once, so you can see what a silly, outdated institution it is.

Imagine if someone like John Lennon or Bob Marley, Sid Vicious, Picasso, whomever, were doing their work, and some corporation, some CEO, some branding entity was saying to you, 'Well, you can do that, but you've got to remove this aspect of your work.' There would no longer be that purity anymore.

I know there's more to life than making lots of money and being successful and even getting married and having a family.

I think the biggest reason I was able to express myself and not be intimidated was by not having a mother. For example, mothers teach you manners. And I absolutely did not learn any of those rules and regulations.

I'm opening gyms around the world to encourage people to get in shape and feel good about themselves; bringing art through dance to gyms to make my gyms different from other people's.

I grew up in a high school where it was very conservative, and I felt like people disapproved of me, and I felt like an outsider.

I like to think I'm a role model for women. But I also don't like to just limit it to women. I like to think I'm a role model for human beings in general.

I sometimes think I was born to live up to my name. How could I be anything else but what I am having been named Madonna? I would either have ended up a nun or this.

I suppose I sometimes used to act like I wasn't a human being... Sometimes I look back at myself and remember things I used to say, or my hairstyle, and I cringe.

I always thought I should be treated like a star.

When I first came to New York I was a dancer, and a French record label offered me a recording contract and I had to go to Paris to do it. So I went there and that's how I really got into the music business. But I didn't like what I was doing when I got there, so I left, and I never did a record there.

I think in the end, when you're famous, people like to narrow you down to a few personality traits. I think I've just become this ambitious, say-whatever's-on-her-mind, intimidating person. And that's part of my personality, but it's certainly not anywhere near the whole thing.

Of course, my interests and my focus change and become more diverse, more worldly. At the same time, I am interested in the simple basics, which is I love to dance and I love to make people dance.

I was more of a dancing kid than a singing kid. I mean, I sang in school choirs and I sang in school musicals, but I was much more interested in dancing than singing.

My physical transformations - like changing my hair - are usually a reflection of what's inspiring me at the moment.

I have my work and my faith... If that's boring to some people, I can't tell you how much I don't care.

A lot of places I go are dangerous, like Tel Aviv or Rio, but that never stops me from going there and putting on a show. I have good security. I don't worry about that.

Prince Charles is very relaxed at the table, throwing his salad around willy-nilly. I didn't find him stiff at all.

If any of you have seen my shows, you know that I don't skimp on them and the same is true for the gym. We spend what it takes to make a globally first-class gym.

I don't like rooms you never use or that are wasted space but I also like a sparseness and a cleanness.

I hate being called a pop star. I hate that.

If I was a girl again, I would like to be like my fans, I would like to be like Madonna.

As an artist myself, I know what it's like to put your heart and soul into something. You can feel the presence of another person.

But I love the idea - whether it's in my work or where I live - exploring new frontier, and I like putting myself in strange places and trying to survive and figure things out and gather up an infrastructure. I like knowing that I could figure out a way to live anywhere.

There are moments when I can't believe I'm as old as I am. But I feel better physically than I did 10 years ago. I don't think, Oh God, I'm missing something.

I'm not interested in being Wonder Woman in the delivery room. Give me drugs.

I guess some people are brilliant enough to be brilliant on their own and never doubt anything and come up with fabulous things. But I think it's good to get into arguments with people and have them say, 'That sucks' or 'You're crazy' or 'That's cheesy' or 'What do you think of this?'

In this business, my business, I get to meet all kinds of incredible people, fascinating people, glamorous people and sexy people and highly intellectual people. And you meet them and you go 'interesting, interesting, interesting'. They're interesting, but not very many people stop you in your tracks.

Things were a lot simpler in Detroit. I didn't care about anything but boyfriends.

People hear the soul, black influence in my voice. I grew up listening to CKLW and all the black stations like WLBS.

Everybody in our family studied a musical instrument. My father was really big on that. Somehow I only took a year or two of piano lessons and I convinced my father to let me take dancing lessons.

I have the same goal I've had ever since I was a girl: I want to rule the world.

I don't go to the sale rack. But I wouldn't say I am decadent in my spending. I am careful.

Part of the reason I sort of shot out like a cannon out of Michigan and left home at such an early age is because I had to feel independent.

On the one hand, the idea of marriage and the sort of traditional family life repulses me. But on the other hand, I long for it, you know what I mean? I'm constantly in conflict with things. And it is because of my past and my upbringing and the journey that I've been on.

I get strength from my art - all the paintings I own are powerful.

If I can't be daring in my work or the way I live my life, then I don't really see the point of being on this planet.

When you're 25, it's a little bit easier to be daring, especially if you are a pop star, because eccentric behavior is expected from you.

I have a funny relationship with religion. I'm a big believer in ritualistic behavior as long as it doesn't hurt anybody. But I'm not a big fan of rules. And yet, we cannot live in a world without order.

I'm encouraging other people, whether they're professionals or not, to use their creativity to express themselves, to get a conversation going, to get the party started, really.

I hope that I inspire women to believe in themselves, no matter where they come from; no matter what education they have; what particular background they originate from.

I tend to write during the day so I can see my children at night. But if my kids aren't with me and I have a chunk of time when I'm a single woman living in my house for a miraculous week, I will get to write at different hours.

I've always been acutely aware of differences and the way you are supposed to act if you want to be popular.

Making movies is really hard. It's the hardest thing I've ever done.

I believe sometimes we aren't always in charge of everything that we do creatively. We submit to things as we're going on our own journey.

We like to put people on a pedestal, give them one character trait, and if they step outside of that shrinelike area that we blocked out for them, then we will punish them.

One of the things that helps me tell a story through music is to create a character. I have to have a muse, whether it's Frida Kahlo, Martha Graham, Marlene Dietrich, or Pippi Longstocking.

I want to give a child a life who wouldn't be given a life. I want a child that nobody else wants.

I think a lot of people have a problem with the fact that I've adopted an African child, a child who has a different color skin than I do.

Stevie Wonder and Diana Ross and the Jackson 5, that's what I grew up on.