Quotes By Madonna Ciccone

My father was very strong. I don't agree with a lot of the ways he brought me up. I don't agree with a lot of his values, but he did have a lot of integrity, and if he told us not to do something, he didn't do it either.

I always thought I should be treated like a star.

I want to be like Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, and John Lennon... but I want to stay alive.

Be strong, believe in freedom and in God, love yourself, understand your sexuality, have a sense of humor, masturbate, don't judge people by their religion, color or sexual habits, love life and your family.

I like to change. A new lamp, a piece of art, can transform a room.

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.

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

Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another.

I really saw myself as the quintessential Cinderella. I think that's when I really thought about how I wanted to do something else and get away from all that.

I think my biggest flaw is my insecurity. I'm terribly insecure. I'm plagued with insecurities 24/7.

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.

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 go to Malawi twice a year. It's where two of my children were adopted from, and I have a lot of projects there that I go and check up on and children who I look after. It's sort of a commitment that I've made to this country and the hundreds of thousands of children there who have been orphaned by AIDS.

I'm ambitious. But if I weren't as talented as I am ambitious, I would be a gross monstrosity.

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

Catholicism is not a soothing religion. It's a painful religion. We're all gluttons for punishment.

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

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

I wouldn't live in Chicago cause it's too conservative, aside for the fact that Oprah Winfrey lives there.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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?'

Sometimes you want to go for a walk and you don't want to be watched. You just want to be anonymous and blend in. Especially when I travel, I feel that way, because I can't really go out and see a city the way other people can and I miss out on a lot.