Top 40 Erykah Badu Quotes

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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

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

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

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

Music and the music business are two different things.

No one chooses to raise children alone.

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 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 as I can.

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

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

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

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 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’ve been a vegetarian since I was 19.

Honey isn’t really that good for you.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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’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.

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.

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 anything I want, so I decide to take the best care of my body and my family in the same way. Holistically. Vitally.

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 put them into music.

Man, I don’t want to have nothing to do with computers. I don’t want the government in my business.

I don’t read music or anything, so when I produce, I go basically by ear.

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