Anita Baker Quotes

I dedicated almost 12 years to the music industry before having children.

My experience with music, I'm not going to say extremely negative, but it's definitely been a grind; it's been grimy - it hasn't been a pretty process. It's left me crying, you know, on the carpet in my tiny apartment with, like, no money. But it's been worth it, it's my passion, my dream, it's what I love to do.

There is nothing harder than working 50 pages a day, working 16 hours a day, trying to be good with only shooting rehearsals.

I'm a working mom. I've been working since I was 14 years old.

I think it's really cool how J. Lo's been able to balance an acting career and a music career. That's something I strive for.

I knew I had a gift. I wanted the world to hear my music, and I wanted it to be my career, but I didn't know how to go about it.

I'm going to try to pull a Natalie Portman. Natalie went to Harvard while shooting 'Star Wars'. I don't know how she did it. I want to have lunch with her and ask her - that seems like a bunch of stress right there.

Being a woman in music and having kids, it's very hard to do both without neglecting one a bit.

My advice is if you have to do music, then do it! There's no choice in your heart and your soul - unless you have that kind of great need, desire and determination, it's pretty tough out there!

I moved to Nashville at 17 to make music, and since then I've put everything I have into doing it right.

I think behind every great man there's got to be a great woman, whether she's your wife, your girlfriend or not. I'm not gonna say that there's not that special girl out there. But I'm in the music biz, and I'm focused on the music.

Right from the start with music, I was like, 'I'm just going to do this, and I don't care about anything else. There are certain things you have to give up, even at 13, 14: your Friday and Saturday nights, having a regular girl, lots of things like that. I look at Amy Winehouse, and I think perhaps she just don't want to do it that much.

I think, now that I am a mother, I look at other mums like Jo Pavey and just mums that go back to work and work incredibly hard, and I have so much admiration and appreciation for how hard it is.

I didn't care about anything expect rock & roll. So it's nice that it turned out to be something that you find a way to make a living from.

There were some times when I just wanted to quit making music.

Pressure has always been more of a friend than a foe for me with songwriting.

Being a dad, and being in a rock band, it's harder than it looks. But we tried. And we try.

I love being a mom. I love singing. Why can't you have both? A lot of people would say you can't, but I think you can balance it; if you work hard, and you plan everything out properly, it works.

All I ever thought about was music and being a musician.

I've been trying to be a singer ever since I was 2 years old and I'm a whole 27 years old now so it's like, things can happen or they can't. It's a humbling experience every year, every day.

I'm afraid I'm a complete workaholic perfectionist.

It's been a journey of great stress and awakening. I have given my blood sweat and tears to 'Padmavati.'

Making albums is a very lonely process sometimes. Sitting around working on songs, feeling the pressure.

There will be many obstacles in the pursuit of your dreams. I had long hours of training, balancing studies and badminton.

The bigger your songs get, the bigger the festivals you play at will be, until you make it to Ultra. It happened super quick for me. I'm still in shock, actually. I have to pinch myself a lot.