Quotes from Madonna Ciccone

Suffering is a big informer, a big catalyst for creation. You take your sadness, your despair, your sense of injustice, and you put it in your work.

I'm very grateful that I had work to do. I may have thrown myself off a building.

There's always elements of danger in New York, but people are always out on the street. I don't feel scared there at all.

I wouldn't live in Chicago cause it's too conservative, aside for the fact that Oprah Winfrey lives there.

I grew up in a high school where it was very conservative, and I felt like people disapproved of me, and I felt like an outsider.

Art can heal it if art is allowed to exist. And if art is slowly wiped off the face of the planet, then what tools do we have to reach people, to appeal to them and all of their senses?

I get strength from my art - all the paintings I own are powerful.

I think art should be controversial. I think it should make people think.

Do I have to change my name, will it get me far? Should I lose some weight, am I gonna be a star?

Don't just stand there, let's get to it, Strike a pose, there's nothing to it...

You took a pretty picture and you smashed it into bits, sank me into blackness and you sealed it with a kiss.

I used to believe in the pretty pictures that were all around me, but now I know for sure that I was stupid.

Rita Haywood gave good face.

My father was very strong. I don't agree with a lot of the ways he brought me up. I don't agree with a lot of his values, but he did have a lot of integrity, and if he told us not to do something, he didn't do it either.

Harder is Better! Post work out! Foot in the Ice Bath. A girl has to make a living! #hardcandytoronto. #addictedtosweat

My father had to go to work, I used to think he was a jerk. I didn't know his heart was broken, and not another word was spoken.

If I have a problem, I want to work it out, right now.

Brushing my Grilzz Before I Booty Pop. A Woman's work is never Done!

If I can't be daring in my work or the way I live my life, then I don't really see the point of being on this planet.

I was named after my mother. And I guess when I started making records, Madonna Ciccone seemed too long and complicated, and I just got stuck with Madonna.

I believe sometimes we aren't always in charge of everything that we do creatively. We submit to things as we're going on our own journey.

Imagine if someone like John Lennon or Bob Marley, Sid Vicious, Picasso, whomever, were doing their work, and some corporation, some CEO, some branding entity was saying to you, 'Well, you can do that, but you've got to remove this aspect of your work.' There would no longer be that purity anymore.

I don't take drugs. I never did. All the feelings that drugs are supposed to produce in you - confidence or energy - I can produce naturally.

I was thinking about dying the other day the death thought came while I was sitting on the toilet peeing - that's where I have my most contemplative thoughts.