Quotes from Babyface

I don't claim to be a great vocalist, but I know how to work my voice with its limitations. My talent is I know how to work what I have. It might not always be a picture-perfect performance, but what we look for is the emotion.

I don't go to that many Broadway shows, so I can't really say anything.

I still write the same way and have the same perspective.

Love hurts the most when you really love. Sometimes you think you're in love, and then you find out that you're not because you're not really hurting. But when it's real love, then it's gonna hurt. It's supposed to hurt because it's real.

Commercial music, for the most part, is popular music and you always have to keep that in mind.

I was always too afraid to slow dance. But I do remember watching people slow dance. I was the guy on the sidelines. At the school dance, I was usually in the band, playing.

I enjoy music that is commercial.

The blessing of being able to write music and let music speak for itself is you let the melodies and let the lyrics and the groove talk to people instead of me talking to people.

You can find a diamond in the rough a lot of times.

I think that whenever there's a good script we try to make that happen, but it's all based off of a good story, a good script, but I don't believe you should do it just because it's African-American.

It's about finding great artists and being part of their careers.

The Internet is a whole new world opening up.

Michael Jackson, he used to chase relevancy all the time. He always wanted to go a little bigger and better and keep that audience. There was never a point where Michael was going to feel like, 'I've got to play the Nokia, and that's all I'm going to pull in is the Nokia.' That would not have been acceptable.

R&B is the one thing that has influenced every kind of music. Every artist that there is, from those that are sung the most to Adele - you know, she was so influenced by so many R&B artists and soul music - it's clear in her writing that that's where it comes from.

The whole idea is whatever you do, have fun with it; try to make sure that it's quality and something you don't mind putting your name on.

There are people that bring artists to me to look at it and it's a question of whether I like their music and their look and if I think there's something they have that makes them different and commercial.

I would say that I've been lucky. Being blessed and not really ever giving up.

I usually prepare a track and then I work with the artist when it's time to do the vocals.

It might be a huge hit, it might not; but you learn something doing it.

It's like spicy food - sometimes you have to tone it down so more people can enjoy it.

When I was in top 40 bands, I always had to learn new material and new styles.

I kind of just stumbled into producing. It was more that I was a writer, and the only way you were going to get your songs done was to do them yourself.

Adele ultimately did well in such a large way because she affects everybody, and the way that she writes seems to be popular music, not because of her skin color but because she writes great music, and it's popular in that way.

The first song I wrote was called 'Here I Go Falling In Love' I wrote it in the sixth grade.