Quotes from Ne-Yo

The story of 'Libra Scale,' the storyline was created first, and then the music was created around the story line.

I've spoken before on how the art of storytelling has been lost a bit. I definitely feel 'Empire' is helping to reprogram us back to that place where we pay attention and invest emotionally in the records and the artists.

I'm the type of guy to put the water on the stove and then walk away and 10 seconds later be like, 'Come on, boil'!

An idea that will translate really well musically should work visually. I try to write music that you can feel if you were to close your eyes you can see what I am talking about.

I grew up in Las Vegas. My mom worked in pretty much every casino on the Strip.

A Las Vegas show is all-round entertainment. Which means there's some singing, some dancing, some magic, some drama - everything is rolled into that one performance.

I pride myself on being the type of artist who can work half in the R&B world and half in the pop world.

If you want to be successful, you have to be the best person doing it. And in order to be the best person doing it, you have to get your work ethic right and keep going.

I know the music industry is based on a lot of smoke and mirrors in a lot of cases, such as making things look like one thing versus what it actually is. I feel like I've been here long enough that I've surpassed the need for any of that.

Via social media, I reached out, asking about relationships, dreams, hopes, fears, the whole gambit, and the stories that really resonated with me, I wrote songs about.

'Madden' is the closest thing to actually being on the field yourself. It's so ridiculously realistic. Before I play it, I honestly didn't understand. 'What's all the hype? It's a video game'. Then I sat down and played it, and you feel like you're on the field.

I'm good but not great at 'Madden'. I have friends that their whole life is based around this video game.

I never really created a difference between Shaffer Smith, my actual name, and Ne-Yo. They are kind of one in the same. It's been a bit of a gift and a curse. As far as Shaffer Smith is concerned, I've never viewed myself as a celebrity.

Chimere's not mine. That hurt 'cause I had attached myself to this guy, you know. This is my son. I'm looking at him, and I'm picturing I'm gonna be old, and he's gonna be - this is my son! It's not my son.

I've never been the guy to go for the celebrity girl. I've always liked regular girls, regular people, because I've always viewed myself as a regular person who just happens to be gifted in music.

I've never viewed myself as above anybody else or anything like that. I'm a regular guy at the end of the day. I like Cinnamon Toast Crunch and The Powerpuff Girls.

There's a whole advantage being an executive as an artist.

The Auto-Tune makes everybody sound the same and takes away all of the emotion because you're singing through this machine, and of course your taking all of this emotion out of your voice for the most part.

This is ridiculous. Its been months and for some reason I just cant get over us. I'm stronger then this. Enough is enough; know more walking around with my head down, I'm so over being blue crying over you.

In the grand scheme of things it's our imperfections that make us perfect.

My mom was the picture of the blue-collar mom: Two and three and four jobs to make sure that me and my sister never needed, that was her thing.

I probably wouldn't be singing if not for Michael Jackson. When I started singing, I didn't like my tone until my mom put me on to Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, so listening to the way they used their instrument helped me get more comfortable with my own.

Hats have been my thing pretty much my whole life but finance has not. I would go to the corner store and buy really cheap baseball style caps and wear those to school.

For the first few years of my life my mom used to cut my hair so there were a lot of bowl-cut hair styles.