Top 80 Mary J. Blige Quotes

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.

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

Yonkers made me strong and made me believe in myself, because so many people would doubt you and not believe. There are people that would believe in you, but the environment was so harsh, nobody wanted you to get out, you know?

So many people are like, ‘I’m perfect.’ I’m so imperfect; that’s why I’m able to let everything out and let people see everything. ‘Cause I’m just a mess like every other person that’s a mess out there.

I don’t have any health problems, but to keep your health improves your quality of life.

I still get nervous about singing. I drink tea with honey and lemon before every concert. And I need to have scented candles in all of my hotel rooms.

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

I grew up watching MTV, when Journey was huge, when Pat Benatar had ‘Love Is a Battlefield,’ and my friends and I used to cut school to watch this woman in the video. We loved Pat Benatar.

When you finally understand who you are, ages 6 through 60 will understand who you are. Because when they see a person that’s come through all that I’ve come through, still standing, it’s amazing.

God comes first – if I don’t love him, I can’t love anybody, and if I can’t love me I can’t love nobody.

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 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.

If we didn’t have understanding of our journey, we wouldn’t be able to go on. We’d be stuck, like, ‘Why me?’

I like to do interior design, I love to quilt, I love to see different colors together, and I love to match things up.

Life is full of trials and tribulations. It’s dramatic when you don’t treat people right when you’re in the tribulations, but I know now how to get out of it. You have to make a decision to say ‘No more‘, and then you know what to do when the trials happen.

I never do any album to beat it. I do it to extend it.

Larry David makes me laugh.

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

‘My Life’ is soft, with notes of pear and gardenia, but still bold, with a woody base.

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.

It hurts a lot when you cannot really comprehend what a person is saying in a meeting, or you don’t even understand what you’re reading in your contract.

I hated myself for so many reasons, and I thought so many things were my fault that happened to me growing up.

I was inspired to create ‘My Life’ so I could finally share a personal part of my life beyond my music.

‘My Life’ is not an autobiography. It’s just music.

There’s not enough time to be disrespecting… Life is too short.

When I was a child I didn’t care about getting an education, and I didn’t finish high school.

You can’t get around pain and opposition, but you can try to be joyful in the trial, and thank yourself for the trial, and thank God for the strength to get through it.

I barely have time for my own children. To adopt more children and not have time for them, that would be poor parenting on my part.

You demand respect and you’ll get it. First of all, you give respect.

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

Sometimes I frown and I don’t realise it.

You either learn from your experiences or go back and do the same thing, and I learned from my experiences.

I know who I am. I am not perfect. I’m not the most beautiful woman in the world. But I’m one of them.

It’s challenging to find an identity as a young person if you don’t have the sustenance of love, because you’re being shipped around.

It’s not just songs and glamour. It’s sweat, blood, broken toes, and mistakes… It’s life.

I’ve never been a mean person.

When someone comes up to me and says, ‘Mary, you helped save my marriage‘, or, ‘Mary, you helped me get out of this abusive relationship‘, I’m in it, really in their lives. And I’m so passionate about my feelings, but also about showing people the way through theirs.

By the time I was a teenager, when I went outside the house, it was about hip-hop all the time. Nothing but hip-hop, block parties.

I cannot save the world; that’s not what I’m trying to do. I guess I’m just trying to walk the walk and be an example to those that want it. Not everybody does, but if Mary J. Blige can come out of that same hole you were in, then you can do it, too – that’s my goal: to do that without saying it, but actually live it.

I don’t listen to people’s opinions. I have people around me who I can trust, but most of all I listen to myself.

I listen to gospel music.

If I’m going to be the best in what I do, I have to study what I’m doing, I have to see what I’m doing. I have to see it, I have to hear it. I’m just starting to appreciate myself – not starting, but appreciating myself in a way where I can look at myself back in a movie or listen to myself as much as I do now.

No one intimidates me because I’m not trying to do what you do, because I can’t do what you do. I can only do what Mary J. Blige can do, so that relaxes me right there, and it gets me out of the competition and that whole thing.

When you know what pain is, and when you have to make a choice, you learn that it is a decision. People think it’s a fairytale thing, love and happiness, but you have to work hard. And then – you feel it deeply.

My first album is playful.

Really, every woman is an example to me, because as women we go through so much pain. We have to live this perfect life when we are messed up inside. We all go through trials and tribulations.

Just don’t let the hype of what people are saying and how much they love you, y’know, just take the compliment and be thankful that people are complimenting you, but don’t let it consume you; don’t let your circumstances around you and the way people view you make you act a certain way.

Don’t give up, be positive and if you know someone who knows someone at a record company don’t stop beating down their door till you get heard. Don’t ever say it’ll never happen or it’ll never happen.

As a kid, I dreamed about being onstage.

I can have as many bad days as anyone. But I choose to say, ‘I’m just fine.’

It’s OK showing yourself some love.

I’m my worst critic, and I like the fact that I can listen to myself now and make fun of myself, listen, make changes – ‘Oh, man, that’s messed up. Okay, I need to work on that; I need to work on this.’

If you’re not confident in yourself, you’re going to waver. I’ve wavered, and I’ve lost.

I’m striving toward this acting thing. I’m definitely gonna work hard on that, whatever comes my way, I’m gonna work hard on it.

My responsibility to God is to live. That’s the gift he gave me.

I just want fans to walk away knowing that no matter what’s going on, no matter how happy you are, no matter how sad you are, we did it. We’re strong in this. We’ve come a long way, and life is not just one thing.

I can see the music. I know what it looks like. I know what color it is. The words come easy, the tears come easy, and the joy comes easy. The music tells you what to do.

I felt ashamed about everything. Me dropping out of high school, me not, you know, just not being beautiful enough. I just didn’t feel like I was smart enough or beautiful enough, you know, for years.

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.

When you tell your truth, you are coming from a real place, so you are automatically a leader.

Thank you so much for supporting me from the day I stepped foot into the music industry. It really means something to me to have Maya Angelou speak on my behalf. It also means a lot to have Oprah on my speed dial!

It hurts when you have to smile and you don’t want to smile, but the best thing to do is to smile.

I don’t know. Only God knows where the story ends for me, but I know where the story begins. It’s up to us to choose, whether we win or lose and I choose to win.

I remember a time when all my fans were crying and sad and going through hell. Now, we’re trying to uplift each other and accept ourselves for who we are, even if nobody else does.

My main exercise is cardio. The treadmill is fine, but running outdoors gives me the best results. I try to log 6 to 8 miles a week. I could be in the worst mood, but when I do my cardio, I feel much, much better.

If you’re here right now in your life, your journey continues and you’ve lived to tell the story.

You can look at my palm and see the storm coming. Read the book of my life and see I’ve overcome it.

When you come from so many damaged places you don’t ever want to spiral back there, so you gotta continue to check yourself.

There’s so many things that life is, and no matter how many breakthroughs, trials will exist and we’re going to get through it. Just be strong.

I truly enjoy Bono. I think he is an amazing person; I love him.

I like hanging out with me, and I’ve accepted everything about me good, bad whatever it is. That’s why I’m able to, that’s why no one can tell me anything negative about myself.

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

When I was a kid, I needed to sing because it makes me feel good about myself. It makes me feel good, period.

You know a lot, but you don’t know everything.

I believe there should be no more drama, but it’s everywhere you go. It’s just about how you get out. You’ve gotta bob and weave because it’s everywhere. How do I keep the drama low? It’s about using your head.

I don’t think there’s anything they can say about me that I haven‘t said about myself already. And I would be an absolute total liar, and my fans would not respect me, if I said that my life and my marriage are perfect. But we absolutely love each other; we have fun together – it’s great.

As a kid, I was in love with Michael Jackson, and I just knew I was going to marry him someday.

People know what they see but they don’t know what’s happening inside. If you want to know who you are and how you feel about yourself, take a look at your environment.

Growing up, I was the preferred hairstylist for all of my friends.

There are people out there who want to provoke me and bring back the old Mary but I’m not giving them the satisfaction.