Alicia Keys

It’s my nature to downplay.

I’m taking more time to listen to myself. It’s allowed me to be an aggressive bad ass, calling it as I see it

I was subscribing to this sick identity. … Stay in your place, be feminine, be a lady, don’t make too much noise.

What I learned the most from Prince was putting art first, being creatively ambitious, and putting creativity at the forefront of what I do.

In the 1990s, with Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, those really big female artists were very glamorous, it was all about the glamour at that time. And so there was a big switch, the desire to be more who you were, not so beholden to this whole standard of beauty. It was a liberation. You see Mary J Blige – she did the same, wearing the combat boots.

Everyone deserves an equal chance at success.

Music is the only language in which you cannot say anything sarcastic.

If T-Bone Walker had been a woman, I would have asked him to marry me. I’d never heard anything like that before: single-string blues played on an electric guitar.

At times in my life the only place I have been happy is when I am on stage.

It’s easy in music to tell what’s good. It’s hard to tell what’s bad.

I think the most important thing about playing is to walk out with confidence, look the people right in the eye and say ‘Here I am,’ and go and do your thing. As soon as they know you’re confident, they’re confident. As long as you adjust to them you’re not in trouble. You should eyeball them, find out what they want, and give it to them. They didn’t pay to come out and look at the tapestries.

I developed in my head that I’m never any better than my last concert or the last time I played, so it’s like an audition each time. You get nervous just before going onstage. I still have that, but I think it’s more like concern. You’re concerned about the people – like meeting your in-laws for the first time.

I play whatever the hell comes out… that’s it.

Stevie didn’t use the technology to drive the song. He used it to enhance. I use the tools to further my work, I don’t use my work to further the tools.

Give it a good go, try to have fun at it, try to pass on some good notes and some good sounds to your fans, and I don’t think you will have wasted your time.

You could still improvise but do it with lyrics.

I’m not playing for other musicians. We’re trying to reach the guy who works all day and wants to spend a buck at night. We’ll keep him happy.

Jazz is there and gone. It happens. You have to be present for it. That simple.

When I got pretty good I went on the road with a group. We starved.

If it sounds good and feels good, then it IS good!

..I wanted to create music that was so different that my mother could tell me from anyone else.