Alicia Keys

“From the beginning, I've had to juggle and weigh the silly things people say - and I've learnt that they're meaningless, and they're mostly inaccurate. So I don't worry about it, because there's nothin' for me to deal with.”

“Things can be really empty in this world, and I don't just mean the music world. It can become a very meaningless place if you don't really understand: 'who am I? Why am I here? What am I doing?' To feel fulfilment and have a deeper level of understanding, personally, that is the most important thing.”

“I think you are who you are, and your kids will see who you are. So you'd better be a good person, because they are going to see it, and that's going to shape them. They are going to become you.”

“To be able to help a 13-year-old kid from the Bronx follow her dreams just by letting her know she's not forgotten in this crazy world - that's why I got involved with Frum Tha Ground Up.”

“I fell in love with the piano. I knew it was me. I was dying to play.”

“Some of the greatest artists did their best work when they got political.”

“I grew up in the middle of everything. I walked the streets alone, I rode the trains alone, I came home at three in the morning alone; that was what I did.”

“There's too much darkness in the world. Everywhere you turn, someone is tryin' to tear someone down in some way; everywhere you go, there's a feeling of inadequacy, or a feeling that you're not good enough. I want to bring a certain light to the world.”

“I'm not ashamed of what I am and that I have curves and that I'm thick. I like my body.”

“I love Bono. I really respect what he has done for Africa and how he has used his fame to do good in the world. I hope I can do half as much in my life.”

“I find myself to be truly primal and passionate. Everything I do comes from a primal place.”

“I see what happens when one gets very attached to material things. That's just not what my life is.”

“When I had nothing else, I had my mother and the piano. And you know what? They were all I needed.”

“I love my heritage!”

“I was tired and I had overworked myself and burnt myself out. So I went to Egypt by myself. When I saw what was built there, it made me understand how powerful we are, that we can create anything. And I felt like I needed to create things that were timeless too.”

“I don't have a ton of friends, but the friends I have are great ones. I don't have huge family, but the family I have is a great one.”

“I have solid decent people around me, and I believe that is all it is, because you will get destroyed if you have people bringing you down.”

“I grew up around the theatre. My mother is an actress. I would fall asleep on tons of theatre chairs. It's in my blood; it's in my spirit and my fabric of who I am.”

“But when I first fell in love with the piano, I knew it was me. I was dying to play.”

“We have the potential to help people out of poverty, out of disease, out of slavery and out of conflict. Too often, we turn the other way because we think there's nothing we can do.”