La India

“Women in salsa - women everywhere - we always gotta be defending ourselves.”

“At 14 and 15, I used to listen to Tito Puente, Dave Valentine and everything that was happening with American jazz. I love it.”

“Women see me as a figure they can respect. They know I've been through a lot. I'm not going to let no man put me under.”

“My style of singing is very much Latin jazz meets Latin and a little bit of rhythm and blues. When I do ballads, my fans love it. They want to listen to my classics. They want to party.”

“There's so much that I can give as a human being - and I know that.”

“From 1997 through 1999, I had gained so much. People don't realize how something like weight gain can make you sad. Losing weight has changed my life. If you can take control of your life, you can lose weight.”

“Originally, I thought English was more my home. But Spanish is so much more romantic. I've had to learn new phrases. I've had to learn to be more secure about singing in Spanish. But I'm working on it.”

“I won't sing if I don't feel it, so there's always so much sadness and so much sentiment behind it all.”

“I loved singing rock-and-roll, jazz, anything on radio, anything commercial. I was able to do anything, but I didn't know what direction to go in.”

“I told God, 'I don't want a man. I don't want more gold albums. The only thing I want is the love, friendship, and presence of my mother.' And God gave it to me.”

“Watching Madonna puffing on a cigar on David Letterman's show, I thought, 'Gosh, she's feeling so India! All she needs is long, black hair and a trip to the Caribbean to burn her skin up.'”

“In my music and my life, I'm honest with my feelings, and people appreciate that. That's just the way I am.”

“Many women, sometime in their life, are going to get to a point where they have to admit infidelity.”

“I fight manic-depression, and I have been able to live battling that sadness that I get sometimes.”

“There's so many other things I want to do. I don't want to do them to be different or just for a challenge, but because my heart and soul tell me to.”

“I felt pressure to follow in Madonna's footsteps, and I didn't want to base my career on sex. So I began to change how I saw myself.”

“I used to be so embarrassed by salsa; I wasn't into it.”

“I try to stay real with my thoughts and the things that I go through in life. I like being free.”

“I don't do anything just 'cause nothing else is happening, or for money.”