Quotes By Erykah Badu

Well, if you look at all of the cultures in America, this is a great opportunity for us to really get acquainted with the rest of the world. America is the only place you can do that, but we don't have sense enough to take advantage of that.

I am not systematic at all when it comes to religion. I just love life. And I'm not judgmental. And I'm a vegetarian.

What does music mean to me? I don't think I would really be much without it, without it coming through me. It's my means of communication, my means of growth, my means of transportation from one point in my life to another.

But now I realize that this record business really needs me. No one else is trying to take a chance or do something different.

I can be Erykah the human being more than the celebrity.

I don't feel like I need to preach to the world or nothing like that. I just feel like I share what I say, and if listeners get it, they get it. And I never underestimate the audience's ability to feel me.

I knew it would happen. I knew I'd be No. 1. I'm a new artist; I don't know the rules. Nobody told me it wouldn't happen.

What I work hard at doing is staying on a path of being kind and showing and proving that I'm a good person to society. That's hard. The talent, that's a gift. I just came here like that.

I love putting the music together. It's like art.

I don't have one song that sounds like another one in my entire catalog.

I'm a performance artist first; I'm a recording artist second.

As Erykah Badu, it has nothing to do with me, the way I look, my hair wrap, my style, it's about you and what you feel for my music. If I can make you feel like the way that people who influenced me made me feel, that's completion.

It's almost like a lot of black people in America, a lot of young black men, are born with this cloud over their heads. It's their penitentiary cloud, this philosophy we all have, that it's harder for us.

I'm a woman who has gone through many heartaches, enough to dedicate my whole life to trying to figure them out.

When you're in a relationship you want it to work. My parents did, I did. But we are not taught how to make it work.

Personally, I don't choose any particular religion or symbol or group of words or teachings to define me. That's between me and the most high. You know, my higher self. The Creator.

I love to leave the interpretation of my music up to the listener. It's fun to see what they'll say it is.

I've had two children. I've had three boyfriends. I've had a lot of things happen that can change your opinions and values and philosophies.

No one chooses to raise children alone.

I thought the Billie Holiday comparison was beautiful. I think, Wow, what a wonderful, creative, helpful spirit. She's someone who wanted to help others by sharing her emotion. That's what I do, too, so I think that's a great comparison.

I try to be honest and I keep moving.

Marvin Gaye is one of my favorite revolutionaries. He spoke from his heart, his mind. That's what I want to do.

Music and the music business are two different things.

I'm a complete human being. I'm very emotional and loving. I feel, I hurt, I give, I take, and also I think. I analyze. I'm a sociologist, anthropologist.

Hopefully my music is medicine, some type of antidote for something or some kind of explanation or just to feel good.

I'll dabble here and there in different forms of the art, but the label has me locked down like a slave so, of course, I'll be doing albums during this time.

Anything that had to do with art I been doing all my life. It was a gift. It's nothing I work real hard at doing.

I love being an entertainer - not really fond of being a celebrity.

I consider my musical ability to be a gift from the Creator. It's not that I try to work hard or nothing like that, it's a gift, it was given to me, and I appreciate it.

I think a lot of people have lost respect for the individual, you know, the individual, the person who doesn't conform.