Manika Quotes

I feel fortunate that I've had a lot of songs recorded by other people, because I take my songwriting very seriously. It's only those people that have followed me over the years and really know my work that know how serious I am about all of it - including the way I look. You can't take my high heels from me, you can't have my long fingernails, you can't take all this hair from me, because it's part of this thing that I've become. I wouldn't want to give any of it up. Do I have to be ugly to be a songwriter? This is the way I am, and it's what I choose to be.

I love being a woman and I was not one of these women who rose through professional life by wearing men's clothes or looking masculine. I loved wearing bright colors and being who I am.

I wanted to be that quirky girl who writes funny songs that still have meaning.

My main goal as a songwriter is to make something that inspires people. To write things about my life that people can relate to. Whether it's a whole record or just one song for someone, I hope it can do that for them. Knowing that I have the ability to do that is inspiring to me.

I don't know how to be a rapper. I just know how to be me.

How do I tell people who I am? Not being a writer, the only way is to sing songs that reflect my opinions.

When I think of artists I love, like J. Cole, it's the storytelling that grabs me. I want to be honest with my music.

I'm not into makeup or dresses or typically girly things. But to me, those things don't really define what it is to be a female artist in this industry any more. It's being brave and courageous and true to yourself.

I'm a songwriter, an artist, and a musician. I do not have to try to be that; I just am.

I'm not a goddess, for crying out loud. I'm a regular person who took feminism - which I have a deep connection to - and mixed it with music, which I really love to do.

One of my core values is to help redefine what it means to be a strong and beautiful woman in the music and fashion worlds and to empower the wonderful things that make us unique.

You know, she was a girl. She was a female. And she wasn't like, trying to compete in a man's world and she wasn't trying to be in a man's position, she was just who she was. And I think that was like, a good thing.

I'm always gonna be all over my CD the most, of course. My talent is my talent. I ain't really tripping off no ego; I just like to make good music with good people.

I've kind of stepped into my femininity.

Most of the songs I wrote are personal.

Once you get everything out of your head about what everybody else is going to think, will radio play it - and I hope they do, I really do - once you shed all of that and just be who you are, that's who I am. That's taken a lot of growing up. I've come into myself musically and as a woman, and I hope to keep growing. If you don't grow, you die.

Make your own music. It can be done.

I'm totally into Taylor Swift. I think she has super-clever lyrics, and I love that she writes her own music. Some of the themes she writes about are stuff I wish was there for me when I was in high school, and I'm so happy she really cares about her female fans. She's not catering to a male audience and is writing music for other girls.

I wrote my own verses. Anything I did, I wrote myself.

I've always made weird sounds with my mouth. I've always been fascinated by the sound design, what you can do with your mouth. I was the kid dancing around in third grade on the basketball court. While everyone would be playing sports, I would be jumping around.

I've always been super expressive, and I've always liked to express myself any way I can.

Being a grown-up woman doesn't mean you can't look beautiful, individual and different.

We have a lot of love for women who wear Marc their way.

Ed Sheeran wrote his songs, so I wanted to write my own songs.

Mentors of mine were under a big pressure to minimize their femininity to make it. I'm not going to do that. That takes away my power. I'm not going to compromise who I am.