Quotes By Erykah Badu

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

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'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.

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.

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.

I'm kind of a recluse when it comes to going outside.

Music and the music business are two different things.

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

What makes me furious, not just because we're in an interview, but I don't like when writers take your words and put them somewhere else, in the wrong context in their own article about you.

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 started performing at two or three on a tape recorder, one of those little flat recorders where you just push play and record.

I have a master plan as an artist. I've always said I'm not going to be punching nobody's clock. I will work as an artist to survive in this world.

I grew up listening to old soul.

I planned my success. I knew it was going to happen.

Honey isn't really that good for you.

Being honest is my job. That's what music is for me.

Artists need some kind of stimulating experience a lot of times, which crystallizes when you sing about it or paint it or sculpt it. You literally mold the experience the way you want. It's therapy.

I believed in myself, and I've always worked very, very hard as an artist, and I am an artist in every sense of the word.

From then on, I realized this is what I want to do, what I'm supposed to do: Giving energy and receiving it back through applause. I love it. That's my world. I love it. I enjoy it. I live for it.

I have the ability to sing with emotion and feeling, but if you say I sound like Billie Holiday, that's cool. Let's look at who Billie was: she was this person, this singer, this beautiful diva who could move the audience with the slightest gesture of her hand.

I'm not satisfied with the explanations I get from tv or from school.

The music business is motivated by money. Music is motivated by energy and feelings.

The kind of music or the kind of arrangements that I do, the kind of musicians I choose, is just what I like to hear.

Oh, yeah, I see the world differently now. Actually, when I first had the baby, I was breast-feeding him for two years straight. So we were together for two years of his life, every single day, all hours of the day. So I was two people, and I eventually morphed back into one.

I'm free. I just do what I want, say what I want, say how I feel, and I don't try to hurt nobody. I just try to make sure that I don't compromise my art in any kind of way, and I think people respect that.

And I figured out that the reason I couldn't get through the day as well as I can now is because I had too many things on my mind, on my plate, you know, for one person to have. So I started to eliminate some of the things that were too heavy to carry and unnecessary.

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 grew up with all mothers, all women. I come from a long line of matriarchs, very strong women.

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