M.I.A. Quotes

I had no idea that it was gonna take off the way it did. I thought we made a good movie.

I think people just want to be popular. So they're going to write lyrics that are going to get your attention. You know, sometimes, they're a little graphic, and I don't think that's so necessary.

Hollywood listens to money and to controversy.

I had a style before I was signed, but now I'm developing my commercial sound as well as trying to strike a balance between authentic music and music that the masses will love.

In hindsight, I think my manager and I both knew that 'Someone You Loved' was a special song that we had to put out. But no one was expecting it to do so well.

I've never understood the use of vulgar language, but the definition of 'risque' is open to interpretation. I suppose I did many things in my shows that could be considered risque... at the time... right up until my 90s.

People forget at the time that 'The Simpsons' started out, it was controversial - the fact that they said 'hell' and 'damn' in a cartoon was a lot. America was in an uproar.

Instead of trying to be the queen of cool, it feels like more of an achievement to work with mainstream brands and reach as many people as possible. It's more unexpected for someone like me.

With the TV shows, you get eight zillion people watching you. I was really surprised at the way everything went. I knew television was powerful, but that was just... wow.

The truth is, I hadn't grown up really wanting to be a writer. The whole thing was a weird aberration in some ways, and I didn't feel personally connected to the level of success I had with it - the success of sorts, I guess.

What I didn't expect was 'VIP' becoming something of a cult and one of my biggest hits.

I'm not always happy when Hollywood does remakes of films, but that's usually when they have a very, very, very good film, and they take away anything controversial from it and make flatter.

I know in our mainstream culture, the loudest voices and the most shocking voices are the ones that get the noise.

Liberals decided it's much better not to play outraged with me anymore. I sell lots of books that way.

It's never been our intention to sell millions of albums, but if our message touches that many people, then so be it.

It was something I never expected to - I never expected the book would sell in the first place. I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers.

The power which football has is enormous. Football moves the masses.

Some musicians don't have strong opinions, or they deliberately don't have strong opinions because they want to try and sell as many records as possible.

After 'Aashiqui 2,' I have been receiving congratulatory calls and messages from people, and they are showering me with praises. I am happy that the film connected with the hearts of the masses.

I don't think you're selling out by allowing the masses to love your art. The only curse is that, when you get so big, sometimes people forget to look at the music.

No one cares about anything until it's something that goes viral. It's most certainly frustrating.

If you're thinking about making a hit song, and you think I want everybody in the world to love it, then you kind of make it up, and you do it.

People will love or hate 'Satta' and 'Stumped.' But they cannot ignore them.

We didn't expect 'Boom Boom Pow' to come out the box and be so successful.

When 'Toast' got on Netflix, I noticed a difference. It was something I thought that only myself and a few people would find funny, and suddenly it's on a very large platform. Now it kind of belongs to everyone.