Quotes from Alicia Keys

I've stepped more into my womanhood, I'm a mother now, I'm having a beautiful relationship as a wife and as a friend.

My mom is definitely my rock.

I lived with my mom in a really small apartment. My bedroom was like in the living room. That's why I still love to sleep on couches now.

Soul music is timeless.

I've stepped more into my womanhood, I'm a mother now, I'm having a beautiful relationship as a wife and as a friend.

My mom always said, 'Don't date a guy who thinks he's prettier than you.'

If I want to be alone, some place I can write, I can read, I can pray, I can cry, I can do whatever I want - I go to the bathroom.

When I was first learning songs, I'd have a favorite song, and I'd take the chords and twist them around. I'd learn the chords and then play them backward. That was my first experimenting with writing a song.

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.

We don't draw loved ones into our lives coincidentally. They're there to shine a light on our unfinished emotional business, to reveal to us our deepest tendencies. And as my life is proving to me even now, those patterns appear time and again, often cleverly disguised. And they'll keep right on showing up until we're willing to truly look at them.

It has been said that a girl grows up to choose a man who either bears a striking resemblance to her father, or one who is nothing like him. Both choices are, at their core, reactions.

When you've chosen the right path for yourself, you usually know it immediately. The choice just sits right in your spirit. You're not second-guessing your decision or thinking about turning back. You realize there are challenges ahead, but you're not looking over your shoulder, wishing you'd gone left instead of right at the last fork in the road.

In Metaphysics, Aristotle wrote that Egypt is the "cradle of mathematics—that is, the country of origin for Greek mathematics." Some historians believe that when European societies eventually began enslaving Africans, they also started downplaying the major contributions of both the ancient Nile River Valley civilizations and the kemetic culture, as well as concealing its African lineage.

often, the only way forward is through an exit door.

For as long as I am alive, I will be growing and improving, wielding my pen as the author of my own forever. But even as I lift my life to the next level, I hope to always recognize my reflection. I want to know who I am and accept every part of that identity. I am frightened and I am fearless. I am weak and a warrior. I am uncertain and I am confident. And by learning to embrace the paradox in all of it, I am more myself.

Keep dreaming in color And drawing your dreams On cement floors Until they are realized. —Alicia Keys

There's also the multicultural side of me, the biracial ancestry that allows me to connect with a wide spectrum of people. And then there's my spirit, that blend of glass-half-full optimism, introverted reflection, and outward-facing social activism.

I definitely wanted freedom, but I wasn't yet ready to step into it, embody it, breathe it, own it.

That though passageway came with a surprising revelation. When life forces you to face yourself, what awaits in the mirror is a gift: vulnerability. Your heart is pierced. You're broken open. You're hyper-aware of what you're feeling.

a twenty-year-old with braids and beads, with a large helping of soul and a sprinkle of classical.

There's too much darkness in the world. Everywhere you turn someone is trying' 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.

Sometimes Some lies Can take a minute To fully realize His tears Your eyes Thirty seconds to apologize You give it one more chance Just like the time before But he already know you'd give a hundred more Until that night in bed You wake up in a sweat You're racing to the door Can't take it anymore

I now see so clearly what escaped me then: It's not that the ground underneath me was suddenly shifting; it's that it is never still. That's part of the work of my journey—getting comfortable with life's groundlessness.

An aha moment is not a happy ending—it's an open doorway, one you have to choose to walk through.