Usher

“In life, you have to go through something to get to something. From that, the inspiration comes having something of substance to talk about; otherwise you're just considered to be fluff.”

“The best present a man can give a woman is his undivided attention.”

“As a kid, looking at Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, New Edition, the Temptations, Motown, people who I felt were huge artists, they made me wanna do something.”

“When I was a kid, we got in a cipher and battled each other lyrically. We told jokes and made the hottest dance moves.”

“Music is not free to make. Studios are going under because people now work at laptops. Quantity over quality is what begins to happen; the idea of what quality is has changed.”

“My philosophy is I'm raising future adults, not children.”

“If you get lazy when you're onstage, it shows.”

“When I was 14 years old, I was talking about much more mature things because of the writers that I had at the time. My first album was tied into what the culture was at that moment, which was Jodeci, Al B. Sure, Puff, The Hitmen. I reaped the benefits of being part of Bad Boy's movement. That was my introduction.”

“I'm more for the style than the brand. I don't go brand shopping; I go detail shopping.”

“Someday, I'd like to create a fashionable dance shoe.”

“You couldn't find a more stylized boxer than Sugar Ray Leonard.”

“I like to wear things that are daring but also not seem too avant-garde.”

“Appearance is something you should definitely consider when you're going out. Have your girlfriend clip your nails or something like that.”

“I've learnt that you are who you are, and in the end, if you don't believe it, then no one will.”

“I never hated my father. I would have named my child Usher regardless. I never hated myself because I carried his name, because I made it mean what I wanted it to mean.”

“Strivers achieve what dreamers believe.”

“I create from a place of passion. It's like a pregnancy, where you create from a place of passion, and then it grows, and then before you know it, you want to push that baby out.”

“My music is about where I am at the time. In 'Raymond vs. Raymond,' I was going through a lot of things, and it came out in my music. My marriage fell apart, and I was suddenly a single father.”

“The beauty about living in Atlanta is that there aren't too many paparazzi here; you can just relax. And that really works for me and my children.”

“In time we grow older, we grow wiser, we grow smarter, and we're better. And I feel like I'm becoming more seasoned, although I don't have my salt-and-pepper hair.”