I do say things that I think will shock people. But I don’t do things to shock people. I’m not trying to be the next Tupac, but I don’t know how long I’m going to be on this planet. So while I’m here, I might as well make the most of it.

None of the records I make are ever a deliberate construction – they’re always an expression of who I am at the time and where I am in my life.

When you have nothing important or interesting to say, don’t let anyone persuade you to say it.

I’ve seen firsthand that being president doesn’t change who you are. It reveals who you are.

I don’t see the point of doing an interview unless you’re going to share the things you learn in life and the mistakes you make. So to admit that I’m extremely human and have done some dark things I don’t think makes me unusual or unusually dark. I think it actually is the right thing to do, and I’d like to think it’s the nice thing to do.

Be as you wish to seem.

You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself. People are afraid because they have never owned up to themselves.

What people see on court is another side of me; it’s not me.

I’ve just tried to grow up in the most natural and gradual process that I possibly can and make choices I feel are right for me and my fans.

I don’t like it when people who are young act like they’re 40. That’s taking too much on. Putting up a shield and trying to act like you’re so mature or whatever – I don’t try to act mature. Some people might say I’m mature for my age, but it’s not something I’m trying to do, you know? I’m just me.

The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.

I’m crazy and I don’t pretend to be anything else.

Once you’ve changed who you are or who you’ve portrayed in your music, the fans, they’ll catch it… Once I feel like the world knows me for anything else but my music, then I feel like I failed.

I feel like when I try to fit in, it comes across as not genuine, and that is not good. I’d rather just do me and have people say, ‚Oh. That’s interesting,‘ than try to fit in.

The hardest thing for – not only an artist but for anybody to do is look themselves in the mirror and acknowledge, you know, their own flaws and fears and imperfections and put them out there in the open for people to relate to it.

Tupac, Biggie, Jay. Your usual suspects. These were the people that was played in my household.

I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values – and follow my own moral compass – then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own.

Where is the man who has the strength to be true, and to show himself as he is?

Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.

I want to be a man who is truthful and who won’t let pride get in the way of my ripping myself open to my partner and saying, ‚Here I am. This is me.‘ I feel there’s something powerful when a man reaches a point in his life when he can be completely vulnerable.

When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.

Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.

I’ve never been shy or secretive with the fact that if you walk into my life, you may be walking onto a record.

If you know me, and you call me Stefani, you don’t really know me at all.

You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!

People often think I’m a faker, but I’m usually honest, in a certain way – in such a way that often nobody believes me!

No rapper in the world from Jay-Z to Tupac to Biggie has 100 percent love on everything they do.

I do believe in God. But you won’t find me visiting temples every now and then. I believe in self-realization. Peace of mind matters a lot to me. What’s the point in doing something just for the sake of it? I’d rather do something I like doing as long as I’m being true to myself.

I refuse to accept other people’s ideas of happiness for me. As if there’s a ‚one size fits all‘ standard for happiness.

I never do anything that I don’t want to do.

I’m a human being. I’ve got opinions, I’m not always right, I’m not always on time, I don’t always say things in the proper way, but my intentions are always extremely pure.

Anything I’ve ever said, I certainly was feeling at the time.

The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it – basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.

I’ve always felt that if I examine myself too much, I’ll find out what I know and don’t know, and I’ll burst the bubble. I’ve gotten so lucky relying on my animal instincts, I’d rather keep a little bit of the animal alive.

I don’t know if it’s changing already with ‚Joanne,‘ but my intention is to bring people together that don’t know each other and that would maybe feel awkward, but somehow be brought together by the music. That’s what I wanted to do. Because that is pure and authentic to my family history and what I stand for.

You’re not going to scare me into being somebody I don’t want to be.

I don’t make people bend over backwards, and I don’t like that in people. I am definitely no diva.

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.

Whatever I am, it’s natural… I don’t have to pretend to be aggressive, don’t have to show the opposition that I am on the field. Being aggressive comes naturally to me, helps me perform.

God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.

An unexciting truth may be eclipsed by a thrilling lie.

Accept everything about yourself – I mean everything, You are you and that is the beginning and the end – no apologies, no regrets.

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

I hate the giving of the hand unless the whole man accompanies it.

I don’t want to be fake. I’m just being me. And I have the power to break stereotypes and whatever useless rules that society puts on us.

I can’t very well be teaching one way and living my life another way. What I do in life must be consistent with the things I say. And the same goes for you.

No face which we can give to a matter will stead us so well at last as the truth. This alone wears well.

To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.

You know, I just do whatever feels right to me! And so that’s what you’re gonna get!

For a creative writer possession of the ‚truth‘ is less important than emotional sincerity.

I’m happy being myself, which I’ve never been before. I always hid in other people, or tried to find myself through the characters, or live out their lives, but I didn’t have those things in mine.

I never think of myself as an icon. What is in other people’s minds is not in my mind. I just do my thing.

I find rebellion packaged by a major corporation a little hard to take seriously.

If it’s going to come out eventually, better have it come out immediately.

I’m here to spread a message of hope. Follow your heart. Don’t follow what you’ve been told you’re supposed to do.

A ‚No‘ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a ‚Yes‘ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.

I’ve got an extra-specific story about Dr. Dre. I saw him when I was 9 years old in Compton – him and Tupac. They were shooting the second ‚California Love‘ video. My pops had seen him and ran back to the house and got me, put me on his neck, and we stood there watching Dre and Pac in a Bentley.

If I’m gonna tell a real story, I’m gonna start with my name.

I never sell a book. I sell myself. And the way to sell yourself is to be an instrument of love.

I would be a liar, a hypocrite, or a fool – and I’m not any of those – to say that I don’t write for the reader. I do. But for the reader who hears, who really will work at it, going behind what I seem to say. So I write for myself and that reader who will pay the dues.