Top 100 Shakira Quotes

I consider myself a laborer, building my career brick over brick under the sun.

I enjoy taking part in footballing events that are for social causes because, in my view, inspiring children through sport is a way of keeping their bodies and minds healthy as well as helping nurture their intelligence and ability to relate with others.

It’s not easy to work with me, I recognize that. It’s not easy if those people aren’t as perfectionistic as I am.

Guys don’t like women telling them what to do. It reminds them of their mothers, or something like that.

For a while, I could only wear sweat pants because I was that intermediate size that you’re not a small, you’re not a large.

When we were in the Dark Ages, it was a question of humanity somehow managing to forget about itself. We put God in the centre of society, and people forgot about their own nature and desires. There was a huge deal of repression.

President Obama is highly concerned with education. He’s a champion on early-childhood development strategies. So I like the work he’s doing, and I support it, and I realise that he’s one of very few political leaders around the world that actually has early-childhood development strategise at the top of his agenda.

The truth is that I’m more afraid of marriage than of death.

I’m double-jointed. I can put my legs over my head, which freaks people out.

I like to see people’s eyes when I’m singing to them.

Relationships have to have a give and take if they’re going to work in the long term.

I have so many people out there that celebrate with me when they know that I’m happy. And they hate it when they know that I’m suffering because someone has hurt me.

Success happened little by little for me. I tasted the flavor of fame in small doses: I started at 10 years old when I won a music contest; I was performing at birthday parties, company meetings.

I thank God that I’m a product of my parents. That they infected me with their intelligence and energy for life, with their thirst for knowledge and their love. I’m grateful that I know where I come from.

I know that youngsters want to find something in common with each other and feel closer to each other ideologically through bridges such as the Internet.

I came to understand that I’m never going to be the perfect mother, but I’m going to do the best I can. Same goes for everything in my life.

I would love to have eight or nine kids with Gerard – my own futbol team.

I have gone through a lot of things, everything that you can imagine in life, but the best has been Gerard and Milan.

I started my own Pies Descalzos/Barefoot Foundation when I was 18. We provide education to vulnerable children in Colombia and other developing countries. I am an avid believer that education – and especially early childhood development – is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty.

What happens is once you start to understand football, you realise that it’s not just about the physical side of the game and chasing after a ball. It’s a strategic sport which requires a lot of intelligence. It’s a very mental game.

The worst frustration for a singer is choosing a career in making music and then not being able to make music because you’re always giving interviews.

I know what it’s like to feel that fear and the need of affirmation and appreciation. To build confidence in yourself is the toughest thing.

I don’t go out without make up. I’m a woman, you know.

Because of you, I’m running out of reasons to cry.

I am a person who has many dreams. But as soon as I accomplish one, I move on to the next. That’s my fatal, absurd nature.

I adore my dad. He’s a 78-year-old man and my inspiration.

I think love is something that you have to work on, and it develops over experience and time. Love is a practice.

Life is a soccer field, don’t you think?

I think, if you can prove the existence of God, it can only be proven through love.

In 2006 I was asked to sing at the World Cup in Germany, and in 2010 I was fortunate enough to be asked again.

In Colombia, education is sometimes considered a luxury, not a human right. And it’s not a priority in the agendas of many leaders.

I know what I’m doing even when I’m wearing a pencil skirt.

You feel that there is an avalanche coming when you meet the right person.

People are not depressed in Colombia the same way people are in America.

Colombia is not how people think it is. We used to eat fish every Sunday at the beach. In the town where I grew up, people did not tell lies.

A good fragrance should have a certain personality that makes people identify the scent with you.

I’m just a consequence of the great musical momentum and the great changes we are going through in the world.

Everyone can know what is in my heart because I find it hard to conceal myself.

We’ve built six schools in Colombia and do work in South Africa and Haiti. We teach 5,000 students.

I always believed that women have rights and that there are some women that are intelligent enough to claim those rights. There are some others that are stupid enough not to.

The worst mistake of a woman is to go to the kitchen, because then she never gets out of there.

Providing all Latin-American children with the education and early childhood development that they need is in the best interest of all, so it has to be a priority for all of us, not only the government and civil society, but also the business sector.

I wanna stay an eternal girlfriend. I want to have my boyfriend’s children, but I don’t think we need a piece of paper to regulate the game, and we don’t have to go through the whole stress of a wedding and suffering to throw a good party.

If I can contribute to people having fun, I would feel very fulfilled as an artist.

I admire Madonna because she always did whatever she felt like doing. She went through some controversial periods when people rejected her, but she kept on reinventing herself.

I always had the intuition, even as a little child, that I was called for a big project.

I never made it to the school choir because the music teacher didn’t like my voice. I was pretty sad. But he was probably right; I did have a voice a bit like a goat, but my dad told me to never give up and to keep going, and it’s paid off.

A man’s car is like an extension of their ego and their manhood.

People get jaded in every profession, but for some reason, I feel as passionate as when I was 13 years old and just released my first album. I feel the same amount of adrenaline in my blood, and the same amount of curiosity as well. Curiosity about why I’m different.

Sensual is everything that refers to the delight of the senses. And that’s what artists do, is stimulate the senses in any possible way.

The Summit of the Americas is an excellent platform to raise awareness and secure commitments from heads of state and different sector leaders regarding Early Childhood Development.

My team and I have reunited two elements that coexist with difficulty: respect and affection, because when they love you they don’t respect you and when they respect you they don’t love you.

I’m a closet nerd. I love to study history and visit museums.

I always knew that I was tremendously creative. I recited love poems, I wrote stories and I got excellent grades in every subject, except for maths.

A kid cannot learn with an empty stomach.

I remember the first time I saw the ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ video. I will never forget that day. I just wanted to see Kurt Cobain’s face. I had a feeling he was very cute. But, I couldn’t see his face. When I finally did see him, he was even cuter than I imagined!

What I do is I remove my makeup every night, use a little bit of Vitamin C serum, and that’s it, pretty much. Of course, I use my 3D White products!

I didn’t expect babies to need so many diapers. Nobody told me they needed to be changed so often.

The thing is, my dad’s always been more of a bookworm; he was interested in more intellectual pursuits, but nobody can escape the passion that football stirs.

I feel like I’m not on Earth just to shake it and shake it endlessly, you know?

My brain, I believe, is the most beautiful part of my body.

I admire a person who, for the love of art, is able to take off their clothes in front of a camera. But I’m not capable, I’m too cowardly for that.

I believe that every single one of us, celebrity or not, has a responsibility to get involved in trying to make a difference in the world. Our generation faces many challenges, some of which were passed on to us by the past generations, but it’s up to us to find solutions today so that we don’t keep passing our problems on.

I do feel that I have to use my voice for those that don’t have one. I have to do the best I can in my own work to represent my culture, represent the women of my country, of Latin America. What we stand for. What we’re made of.

I’m barefoot whenever I can be.

Gerard and I pretty much share all parenting responsibilities, although I’m definitely the disciplinarian.

I feel a real sense of duty to use the voice and the platform I’ve been afforded by my fame to speak out for those whose voices don’t get a chance to be heard.

I am a person who has many dreams. But as soon as I accomplish one, I move on to the next. That’s my fatal, absurd nature. Human beings are slaves to our dreams, and I am, too. Now I think I just want to share my musical proposal in its entire form.

I feel comfortable in my pop shoes. They let me walk in any direction. I like to go from one extreme to the other. One day I feel that I want to do a song with reggaeton influence, I do it. The next day I feel I need to do a song with rock elements to it, I do it.