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...

Hip-hop is the people. What the people are moving toward is what hip-hop is. I think people are moving toward a freer way of thinking. Openness.

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

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...

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

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...

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.

Never knew what a friendship was, Never knew how to really love, You can’t be what I need you to, & I don’t know why I fuck with you

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...

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 love putting the music together. It’s like art.

Music and the music business are two different things.

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

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.

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.

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...

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.

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

I’m a Pisces, so I’m a very closed-book kind of person.

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

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

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

I have advice for people – period – who are in unhealthy relationships: Follow your heart. It will get you to where you need to be. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes it’s easy, the places that...

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.

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.

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.

Honey isn’t really that good for you.

I’ve been a vegetarian since I was 19.

There are millions and billions of atoms of memory of all kinds of musical themes in me.

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...

I try to be honest and I keep moving.

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.

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.

No one chooses to raise children alone.

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...

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

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...

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

I don’t have any particular thing I do ritualistically. I do the same thing every day. I get up. Drink a lot of water. Have a wheatgrass shot. Drink some green juice. Eat as healthy...

I’m not trying to win an award for being the best vegetarian, just want to be healthy. Take a salt bath. Do things that my parents were never able to do. I’m blessed to do...

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

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...

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...

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...

I don’t sing melodically. Rhyme pattern is how I sing. I also write like a lyricist or an MC because that’s what I was before I was a singer. I just took those elements and...

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.