Fantasia Barrino Quotes

Food, love, career, and mothers, the four major guilt groups.

Our society is constantly creating this framework for girls to feel that their only worth is their appearance, and it's damaging on so many levels to so many people.

We actively encourage teenagers not to have babies, we applaud young career women in their twenties, then before you know it you find yourself, as I did, aged 32 at a friend's wedding and being quizzed by everyone about why you haven't got round to reproducing yet.

There's something unnatural about a woman finding babies or, more specifically, conversation about babies, boring. They'll think she's bitter, jealous, lonely. But she's also bored of everybody telling her how lucky she is, what with all that sleep and all that freedom and spare time, the ability to go on dates or head off to Paris at a moments notice. It sounds like they're consoling her, and she resents this and feels patronized by it.

I think a lot of people, but particularly a lot of women, get to this stage when I'd say they're over 50. We face a lot of hard judgment from the world, we women. If you're a full-time mother, you should be out working. If you're out working, your kids must be being overlooked.

I think the desire to be with someone beautiful...I just had such a different experience growing up. To be in a position where you're lauded for things that you don't own - and don't think of yourself as - it's so bizarre.

I grew up feeling that to be gay was a tragedy. I didn't grow up thinking that it was morally wrong, but I grew up thinking that it would make me marginal, prevent me from having children, and quite possibly prevent me from having a meaningful long relationship. It seemed that this condition would leave me with a vastly reduced life.

Parenthood changes your outlook on life. Makes you realize what things are important. The responsibility is huge. Just to have that responsibility in your hands is a little frightening, but it's exciting at the same time.

And that's the insult of it, how always it comes back to a woman being a "good" mother in the world's eyes or a "bad" mother, how everything in a woman's life is funneled through her body between her legs.

Looking a certain way is a blessing and a curse.

Babies change things, open doors you thought were shut, close others. Make you into something you never been.

People want you to be a crazy, out-of-control teen brat. They want you miserable, just like them. They don't want heroes; what they want is to see you fall.

It's the most annoying question and they just can't help asking you. You'll be asked it at family gatherings, weddings, and on first dates. And you'll ask yourself far too often. It's the question that has no good answer. It's the question that when people stop asking it, you'll feel even worse. - WHY ARE YOU SINGLE?

Man's unique agony as a species consists in his perpetual conflict between the desire to stand out and the need to blend in.

I feel like someone is pressing me into a mold that does not fit my body, forcing me intothe wrong shape.

We live in a society which on the one hand pressurizes us into the pursuit of instant gratification, and the other hand imposes on whole sectors of the population and endless deferment of fulfillment.

I believe in the human spirit. And usually the people who are following me - my fans and things like that - are like-minded people, in that regard. They like to hear about people being in pain, but that are okay, and people feeling like they can't go on, but then they find a reason to go on. How do you marry someone and love them, and then they die? How does that happen? Why are we on this journey? They want to talk about things, and they want to understand. So, this is the perfect vehicle for that.

I don't like [the pressure] that people put on me, on women, that you've failed yourself as a female because you haven't procreated. This continually is said about me: that I was so career-driven and focused on myself; that I don't want to be a mother, and how selfish that is.

Bent out of shape from society's pliers, cares not to come up any higher, but rather get you down in the hole that he's in.

Women are not forgiven for aging. Robert Redford's lines of distinction are my old-age wrinkles.

I think the last few weeks for me have been just a very different emotional experience. Something I never thought I would feel myself. And I find...a lot of things affect me differently now. As any new parent knows, you're only too happy to show off your new child and, you know, proclaim that he is the best looking or the best everything.

I'm sorry I can't give you the normal life you wanted, but I promise to adore you every day for the rest of your new one.

Parents need to be more accepting of who their kids are and less concerned about what society thinks they need to be.

This image of herself as a not ordinary women, an image which was trembling now in his eyes, might suddenly disappear. Nothing more difficult to live up to than men's dreams.

I keep saying, 'Don't change. Be who you are,' but society is really strong in their opinions.