Quotes from Alicia Keys

Rarely, I think, do you find a relationship where you can experience things equally.

The last thing I want is to walk into my house after a long day and see all the Grammys and awards. It would make me feel weird.

I love children and I love family and I love that interaction. Because I had a really close relationship with my mother, I understand that deep powerful love, and it's so beautiful. To be a mother to a child is the most brilliant gift; it's gorgeous.

I love my heritage! I have my mother, who is an Irish-Italian, and my father who is African, so I have the taste buds of an Italian and the spice of an African.

I pray to give thanks and to recognize all the good things that are in my life even during times of great change, confusion, or frustration.

Your life can become the background for the art you create.

Once people see this 'Unplugged,' I just want them to feel the spontaneity, to feel passionate... I want you to see another side of me, that's free, and feel where my head is, where whatever happens, happens. I want you to feel inspired.

I've always valued the input of the people I love. So in the past, whenever I'd make a decision - what to wear to an event, whether to pursue a job opportunity - I'd consult those closest to me, like my mother, husband, or manager.

I really like to live my life in a low-key fashion.

I promised myself that I'd never actually admit to listening to 'New Kids on the Block.'

I'm the cofounder of Keep a Child Alive. We provide medicine for families affected by HIV and AIDS in places like Africa and India.

I'm a very positive person, but this whole concept of having to always be nice, always smiling, always happy, that's not real. It was like I was wearing a mask. I was becoming this perfectly chiselled sculpture, and that was bad. That took a long time to understand.

I feel like B sides are always better, no matter whose record it is.

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.

Everybody goes through their life in different ways. I definitely am having my journey. It evolves and changes. At some moments, I feel totally off center and trying to find my way back.

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

I've met many young women who are HIV positive and courageously fighting the disease. Their determination to live a full life and see their children live in a better world is deeply inspiring to me.

Adam Levine and I remade the Rolling Stones' classic Wild Horses, and it is right up my alley, that whole style. It has a style of its own but still stays very true to the classic arrangement, and I love it.

I feel more like I'm a person who has so much to offer in different capacities that it would be a danger for me not to give myself a chance to spread my wings in all different directions.

My mother is an actress, and she used to drag me from theater to theater and reading to reading.

My life is rich because I have those kinds of people in my life.

I've learned that while I'd be a fool not to stay open to the advice and experiences of the smart, amazing people in my life, I also need to listen to what I have to say.

I want to continue to produce film, television, and theater, and to make the most amazing music that I've made in my life.

I've found that the best life has to offer is right in front of me, with my husband and child