Quotes from Mary J. Blige

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

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

I always want to be a messenger, a person that, you know, that's not afraid to pass on wisdom.

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.

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

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

I just love food, period.

When you wake up and learn to love yourself and want to take care of yourself, things are harder because people don't like the idea of it. But when you get in trouble, it gives people things to talk about.

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 just been growing right along. It's painful, but it's a great pain, and I like suffering for great results. It's like going to the gym. It hurts really bad at first, but after a couple of months and after that diet, you're looking so hot.

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.

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

I believe that anything man himself can do for me, God can do for me in a greater way. I decided to pray and to seek God on my own. I just stayed in The Word. And it worked.

As far as men go, they never gave me a chance to be me; they were always scared that somebody was going to take me.

Then my life crashed and burned down: trials, men, drama, no self-love, no identity. A little identity, but not a lot of love for myself, my life.

I listen to gospel music.

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.

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

The music business is really, really small. The real music is becoming almost extinct, if you don't stay true to who you are.

If you're looking for inner peace from the outside world, you're not going to get that. The inner peace starts with looking at you from the inside.

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.

My responsibility to God is to live. That's the gift he gave me. What I do with it is up to me.

It's up to us to choose whether we win or lose...and I choose to win.

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.