Alicia Keys

As I grow and I get older I’m realising more and more that there’s such a beautiful, sensual power that we have as women.

[on Serena Williams] You are THE epitome of grace and prowess!!! You are an inspiration to all of us. Your purpose to be a leader and a light is a gift to the world!! We love you and thank you for sharing your greatness and spirit!

On my album Here, that’s the first time that I’ve really understood how I could put all the things that were happening in the world and in my life and in our lives as just human beings into one body that was just so powerful and really had a perspective. That was an opening for me and I think that naturally, there is just so much to talk about. I don’t see me getting quiet anytime soon.

I love learning about different religions, and discovering the different ways to worship, and to love the greatness and the higher being that surrounds us all. I definitely believe in a bigger presence, and I really respect all religions; at their core they all teach the same message – community and kindness and looking out for each other.

I’m open and ready to go to the next place, the next level, the next height.

To all my goddesses in the world spreading love and light, power and radiance. Never stop being brilliant!!

I am inclined to just write music and not worry about what people can or can’t do.

I would like you to know, I am a doctor of music.

I never set out to find a style of my own, it just happened.

The drummer; he inspired me to play like no one else I have ever met.

On my album Here, that’s the first time that I’ve really understood how I could put all the things that were happening in the world and in my life and in our lives as just human beings into one body that was just so powerful and really had a perspective. That was an opening for me and I think that naturally, there is just so much to talk about. I don’t see me getting quiet anytime soon.

Living is easy with eyes closed.

And there is a time where you can be beyond yourself. You can be better than your technique. You can be better than most of your usual ideas. And this is a whole other category that you can get into.

[on Ornette Coleman] Man, that cat is nuts!

One thing I like about jazz is that it emphasized doing things differently from what other people were doing.

I’m on some singer’s record date for a demo and I get a note to call Miles Davis. Of course, I didn’t believe it, but I wasn’t going to take a chance by not calling, and it was Miles. He said, ‘I’ve got a session in an hour over at Columbia, can you make it’

Our music artistry should not be disconnected from our lives or ourselves.

Dance music-as I keep saying, you can dance to a windshield wiper… a windshield wiper that’s fairly steady gives you a beat and all you need is an out-of-tune playing ‘Melancholy Baby’ and you’ve got dance music.

I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was 6 years old.

No one is original. Everyone is derivative.

I’m not thinking about what needs to be on the radio. I’m not thinking about anything other than – I’m just going to let this music come out of me and not have any sort of preconceived notion of what I should do. I’m just going to do it.