Mary J. Blige Quotes

If you’re here right now in your life, your journey continues and you’ve lived to tell the story.

I’m on my way to a place where I’d never dreamed I’d be, and that’s perfection.

When you tell your truth, you are coming from a real place, so you are automatically a leader.

When you know what pain is, and when you have to make a choice, you learn that it is a decision. People think it’s a fairytale thing, love and happiness, but you have to work hard. And then – you feel it deeply.

It’s not just songs and glamour. It’s sweat, blood, broken toes, and mistakes… It’s life.

I hated myself for so many reasons, and I thought so many things were my fault that happened to me growing up.

If I’m going to be the best in what I do, I have to study what I’m doing, I have to see what I’m doing. I have to see it, I have to hear it. I’m just starting to appreciate myself – not starting, but appreciating myself in a way where I can look at myself back in a movie or listen to myself as much as I do now.

I wish I had known that education is the key. That knowledge is power. Now I pick up books and watch educational shows with my husband. I’m seeing how knowledge can elevate you.

God comes first – if I don’t love him, I can’t love anybody, and if I can’t love me I can’t love nobody.

I don’t think I’ll do foster care or adopt, to be quite honest.

If you’re not confident in yourself, you’re going to waver. I’ve wavered, and I’ve lost.

I believe there are certain things that God uses to get us out of a bad situation, and I believe music was one of the things he used for me.

I remember a time when all my fans were crying and sad and going through hell. Now, we’re trying to uplift each other and accept ourselves for who we are, even if nobody else does.

There’s so many things that life is, and no matter how many breakthroughs, trials will exist and we’re going to get through it. Just be strong.

I cannot save the world; that’s not what I’m trying to do. I guess I’m just trying to walk the walk and be an example to those that want it. Not everybody does, but if Mary J. Blige can come out of that same hole you were in, then you can do it, too – that’s my goal: to do that without saying it, but actually live it.

I didn’t never have to go to a therapist. I just always put it in a song and you heard me.

I think women should band together to get us more respect in all the businesses that we’re in because, you know, if we turn 40, we’re nothing and nobody. We all should band together and just say we’re not gonna go down like that.

When I was a kid, I needed to sing because it makes me feel good about myself. It makes me feel good, period.

There are people out there who want to provoke me and bring back the old Mary but I’m not giving them the satisfaction.

As long as I live, I know I’ll have feelings. And that’s what I’m passionate about.

I have to have lemon and honey. I have to have apple cider vinegar, Braggs. And I have to have either Red Vines or Twizzlers. These things, you know, are the things that help my vocal performance.

My God is a God who wants me to have things. He wants me to bling. He wants me to be the hottest thing on the block.

Sometimes I frown and I don’t realise it.

You can hate me. You can go out there and say anything you want about me, But you will love me later because I told you the truth.

You demand respect and you’ll get it. First of all, you give respect.

I didn’t know how to show my self love, and I didn’t want anyone else to hurt me. So my tough girl attitude was like, ‘I’m not having it.’

As a child I always wanted to be a singer. The music my mother played in the house moved me – Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Mahalia Jackson. It was truly spiritual. It made you understand what God was. We are all spirits. We get depressed. But music makes you want to live. I know my music has saved my life.

I just want fans to walk away knowing that no matter what’s going on, no matter how happy you are, no matter how sad you are, we did it. We’re strong in this. We’ve come a long way, and life is not just one thing.

Just don’t let the hype of what people are saying and how much they love you, y’know, just take the compliment and be thankful that people are complimenting you, but don’t let it consume you; don’t let your circumstances around you and the way people view you make you act a certain way.

I’m a singer who thinks like a rapper.

My responsibility to God is to live. That’s the gift he gave me.

When you come from so many damaged places you don’t ever want to spiral back there, so you gotta continue to check yourself.

You know a lot, but you don’t know everything.

Music is where my love is. I don’t think the acting thing is going to start outweighing that, but I think it’s going to start being a good chunk of something I want to do.

I’ve been a tomboy my whole life. But then you get older, you get married, you soften up.

I can have as many bad days as anyone. But I choose to say, ‘I’m just fine.’

I don’t think there’s anything they can say about me that I haven‘t said about myself already. And I would be an absolute total liar, and my fans would not respect me, if I said that my life and my marriage are perfect. But we absolutely love each other; we have fun together – it’s great.

When you finally understand who you are, ages 6 through 60 will understand who you are. Because when they see a person that’s come through all that I’ve come through, still standing, it’s amazing.

I can tell you I didn’t feel good when I could not articulate properly. Getting my GED was important and I want other women to feel that.

Don’t give up, be positive and if you know someone who knows someone at a record company don’t stop beating down their door till you get heard. Don’t ever say it’ll never happen or it’ll never happen.

I’m from the element of the streets that says that once you’ve made it, it’s yours. But keep it to yourself.

I’m a child of God. God is my mommy, my daddy. That’s the only thing that’ll keep my head up. If I don’t remember who I am in him, I’m done.

Growing up, I was the preferred hairstylist for all of my friends.

The younger Mary J. Blige, I would call her, she was very unaware, ignorant.

I can see the music. I know what it looks like. I know what color it is. The words come easy, the tears come easy, and the joy comes easy. The music tells you what to do.

In the inner city, there’s a mentality that the government owes you something. My breakthrough came when I stopped feeling sorry for myself and took responsibility for every part of my life. No more pity parties. I’ve gotta love me more than anybody else loves me.

There’s not enough time to be disrespecting… Life is too short.

When I was a child I didn’t care about getting an education, and I didn’t finish high school.

Without your health, everything else means nothing.

I’m my worst critic, and I like the fact that I can listen to myself now and make fun of myself, listen, make changes – ‘Oh, man, that’s messed up. Okay, I need to work on that; I need to work on this.’

I can’t just make a song people can dance in a club to… it still has to be real.

It’s OK showing yourself some love.

When I was little, like 7 to 15, there was nothing I wanted to do but go to church and go to school.

So many people are like, ‘I’m perfect.’ I’m so imperfect; that’s why I’m able to let everything out and let people see everything. ‘Cause I’m just a mess like every other person that’s a mess out there.

I like French fries; I like mashed. I love potatoes.

Really, every woman is an example to me, because as women we go through so much pain. We have to live this perfect life when we are messed up inside. We all go through trials and tribulations.

I’ve been praying to God to show me how to forgive myself. Because… maybe… that’s the thing I’ve been searching for.

I don’t know. Only God knows where the story ends for me, but I know where the story begins. It’s up to us to choose, whether we win or lose and I choose to win.

Nowadays, with the state of the music business, for any artist, whether you’re up-and-coming or you’ve been in it for awhile, you have to explore different revenues and different ways of expressing yourself.

When someone comes up to me and says, ‘Mary, you helped save my marriage’, or, ‘Mary, you helped me get out of this abusive relationship‘, I’m in it, really in their lives. And I’m so passionate about my feelings, but also about showing people the way through theirs.

By the time I was a teenager, when I went outside the house, it was about hip-hop all the time. Nothing but hip-hop, block parties.

One day I realized that I wasn’t getting anywhere by blaming other people for my circumstances. I finally understood: Even if you feel someone has wronged you or owes you something, no one is going to give you anything for free.

It was only for two years, and I jumped from family to family. It’s very scary.

Believe in yourself when nobody else does.

I like to do interior design, I love to quilt, I love to see different colors together, and I love to match things up.

Everything is scary if you look at it. So you just got to live.

‘My Life’ is not an autobiography. It’s just music.

I suffered from self hatred so much. It’s like I didn’t want to look like that any more. I didn’t to feel like that any more. It had to be another way.

I’ve never been a mean person.

When you hold on to anger and unforgiveness, you can’t move forward.

Life is full of trials and tribulations. It’s dramatic when you don’t treat people right when you’re in the tribulations, but I know now how to get out of it. You have to make a decision to say ‘No more’, and then you know what to do when the trials happen.

It’s challenging to find an identity as a young person if you don’t have the sustenance of love, because you’re being shipped around.

Once you climb to another level, you have to figure out how to sustain it.

‘My Life’ is soft, with notes of pear and gardenia, but still bold, with a woody base.

I can go out raw with nothing, and my fans would still be happy, but I feel that I owe it to them to give them almost like a Broadway musical at this point in my life. I have to give them something more, so I do have to think of different ways to do it.

I know who I am. I am not perfect. I’m not the most beautiful woman in the world. But I’m one of them.

The music business is not a good place for people who don’t know things.