Lee Daniels Quotes

I decided at 15 that I didn't want to be one of those artists that gets up and sings love songs they don't mean. I decided that I was going to be me to the fullest extent, that my songs were going to reflect relationships I've had, things I've been through, and even the stuff I'm embarrassed about.

I'm doing things that are more artistic again, more close to the material that I love. I don't disparage those things that I did. They're just not as much reflective of who I am.

I can't constantly be trying to write the unwritten song, the song that the 15-year-old girl needs. I need to write the song that I need.

If I weren't the way I am, I shouldn't write my symphonies.

There is always shame in the creation of an expressive work, whether it's a book or a clay pot. Every artist worries about how they will be seen by others through their work. When you create, you aspire to do justice to yourself, to remake yourself, and there is always the fear that you will expose the very thing that you hoped to transform.

If I didn't think and feel the way I think and feel, I couldn't sing the way I sing. And I like singing the way I sing.

When I'm writing, I mean what I'm saying - there's a lot of me in each song.

I feel like everything I make is personal to me.

I feel like my music at least allows me to release the other side of me, a more vulnerable and sensitive side.

In any piece of art, the artist pours themselves into it. It becomes a reflection of who they are and what they believe. That's what it has to be. Otherwise it's just a product.

When someone is themselves through their music, it's soul music. James Taylor is soul music to me 'cause it's just him talking about him. It doesn't have anything to do with black or growing up in the church; it's where it comes from. It's just soul music.

I don't believe I've ever truly been in love because I don't believe that I've known myself well enough in the past to allow someone to love me.

Every time we put out a piece of art, it continues to define who we are. What could possibly be more important than that and require more of your focus and your time and your energy.

I think my music is more personal than most of the music I'm hearing.

I don't really speak for anybody else's music, and I don't think I should, but I think the reason why people enjoy my music is because there's a level of honesty and transparency that people can connect and relate to.

I feel very strong about 'Brother.' This is me. I've been writing with a much more free sky, open and free.

I don't think I could write about something I've never experienced or felt; all my songs are about things I've been through.

All of the songs on 'Kiddo' were a part of my soul; they're songs that I could never give away.

I think every song I do is specifically tailored to what I would say and how I approach situations.

I had to be honest in my songwriting for it to be where it is, and it's always scary wondering if anyone will connect with that.

It's that beautiful thing to love your weaknesses, your insecurities, and then put them all on blast. That's why I started writing, and that's why it was so hard to do it in public.

I was 29 and I really fell in love, I think, for the first time. I was vulnerable in a way I didn't think I could be.

I think I'd say that my whole body of work is a reflection of who I am, but not any one specific thing.

If I have a style, I am not aware of it.

I was obsessed with this idea that these things that you collect, they just say so much about who you are. I can't say it came from hard-nosed business analysis... It was just something I really want to see built.