Quotes from Alicia Keys

It's hard to pinpoint the precise moment when we internalize others' assessments; it's usually not just a single experience but rather a series of moments that bruise the spirit and lead us to distrust ourselves and those around us. And then we wake up at age seventeen or twenty-five or thirty-seven and realize we don't know the last time we've lived life only to please ourselves

In a single session, with the brand of rapid-fire energy that had fueled our work together thus far, we wrote "We Are Here." Two lines of the song conveyed the message I most hoped would resonate: "We are here for all of us Ã¢â'¬Â¦ Our souls were brought together so we could love each other.

The magic in any art is not only in its technique but in its authenticity. Truth in its rawest form is what resonates most powerfully.

No feeling compares to having others love what you love, and then enthusiastically sharing it with others. Fame for the sake of fame had never been the dream. But spreading light is a pleasure I'll always live for.

Can Chris Rock swing by tonight? And by the way, he's bringing David Blaine with him.

It's hard to pinpoint the precise moment when we internalize others' assessments; it's usually not just a single experience but rather a series of moments that bruise the spirit and lead us to distrust ourselves and those around us. And then we wake up at age seventeen or twenty-five or thirty-seven and realize we don't know the last time we've lived life only to please ourselves.

I wanted so badly to make the group happen. We'd dreamed our dream in unison, and the thought of us disbanding made me wilt inside. But what's true in the music industry is also the case in life: Growth requires movement. And often, the only way forward is through an exit door.

On this part of my journey, I'm at last quieting the noise of our world—removing all the external distractions and opinions and judgments and tuning in to my own voice. I'm recognizing my own power and owning it. I'm finally trusting myself, believing I already have inside me the answers I most crave. And above all, I'm discovering who I am at my core—and becoming, day by day, more myself.

Sometimes you just have to do whats best for yourself.

All I knew was that I needed to flee as far away as I could from the pressure cooker my life had become. A few days at a local spa would not suffice. My spirit was demanding a complete and total eject, a force powerful enough to propel me five thousand miles across the Atlantic. In fact, this was not a vacation. It was a prison break.

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, day and night, to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight Ã¢â'¬Â¦ It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.

When you love someone, you love their journey—

When you've chosen the right path for yourself, you usually know it immediately. The choice just sits right in your spirit. You're not second-guessing your decision or thinking about turning back. You realize there are challenges ahead, but you're not looking over your shoulder, wishing you'd gone left instead of right at the last fork in the road.

I now see transitions for what they are: the dawn of a new chapter. As miraculous as beginnings can be, they can also be excruciating.

Empire" isn't just about New York. It's about hope. No matter where we're from, we all want the opportunity to work hard and breathe life into our ambitions.

Dear Lord, can you take it away... This pain in my heart that follows me day by day, and at night it stalks me like the shadows on my wall.

Elaine Brown's book A Taste of Power. Elaine rose up from an impoverished childhood in North Philly to become the first and only female leader of the Black Panther Party, the '60s political organization formed to challenge police brutality, fight systemic racism, and empower black communities.

you don't value me, then I must not be valuable.

Nothing but uncertainty is uncertain. Circumstances come together, only to fall apart moments or months later. And then, in a flash, we must rise up again and regain our footing. In the rearview mirror, I now see so clearly what escaped me then: It's not that the ground underneath me was suddenly shifting; it's that it is never still. That's part of the work my journey - getting comfortable with life's groundlessness.

life, we don't get what we ask for. We get what we believe. And

If you don't value me, then I must not be valuable.

You don't want modesty," Maya Angelou once said. "You want humility. Humility

be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, day and night, to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight Ã¢â'¬Â¦ It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. —e. e. cummings, poet and playwright

But once you finally take sail in your life, you no longer crave a captain.