Songs are my diaries; they always have been. You have to put your trust in everyone because putting down those real, personal details and thoughts that make a song authentic also opens you right up. I am constantly misunderstood; a lot of people just don’t get me.

This is the thing about hip-hop music and where people get it most misconstrued: It’s all hip-hop. You can’t say that just what I do is hip-hop, because hip-hop is all energies. James Brown can get on the track and mumble all day. But guess what? You felt his soul on those records.

Philosophy is the highest music.

I always had a knack for improvisation. I can write down the notes I play, but never really had a proper academic musical background. I suppose I’m blessed and cursed by the fact I have that freedom.

I love Wiz Khalifa.

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

Searching for music is like searching for God. They’re very similar. There’s an effort to reclaim the unmentionable, the unsayable, the unseeable, the unspeakable, all those things, comes into being a composer and to writing music and to searching for notes and pieces of musical information that don’t exist.

I write songs about stuff that I can’t really get past personally – and then I write a song about it and I feel better.

When I’m writing a record, I kind of don’t listen to much music. Just because I want to be inspired solely on the emotion; just based on how it feels.

In memory everything seems to happen to music.

I’ve started doing book reviews for Barnes & Noble! They saw that I did a lot of book reviews on the site, and they figured that it might not be a bad thing if they got me to do some for them as well. I gave them five categories I’d be interested in reviewing, from art to fiction to music.

I didn’t think it was special to be able to sing.

No one tells me what to do with my music. Real. My mom doesn’t tell what to say, how is someone else going to?

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

The art of acting is not to act. Once you show them more, what you show them, in fact is bad acting.

Ninety-nine percent of the men and women of the FBI… are just professionals. I don’t want Americans, if an FBI agent knocks on their door, to have to be worried about well, is he a Democrat or a Republican? He’s an FBI agent.

I wish they would only take me as I am.

I’ve got a feeling that music might not be the most interesting place to be in the world of things.

Better understated than overstated. Let people be surprised that it was more than you promised and easier than you said.

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.

Who I am on stage is very, very different to who I am in real life.

Platitudes? Yes, there are platitudes. Platitudes are there because they are true.

I would impress upon your minds the fact that if you want to do a man justice, you should believe what a man says himself rather than what people say he says.

I’m the king of the anthems.

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

All my momma’s people were very musical. My grandpa, who was the Pentecostal minister, he was a great musician. He played the fiddle, he played the piano.

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.

There’s always gonna be rock n‘ roll bands, there’s always gonna be kids that love rock n‘ roll records, and there will always be rock n‘ roll.

It is curious how instinctively one protects the image of oneself from idolatry or any other handling that could make it ridiculous, or too unlike the original to be believed any longer.

I would love to study guitar or trumpet.

My goal in music is to create nostalgic moments.

All of my music is honest.

I’d rather tell you how I really feel.

The thing that will never go away is that connection you make with a band or a song where you’re moved by the fact that it’s real people making music. You make that human connection with a song like ‚Let It Be‘ or ‚Long and Winding Road‘ or a song like ‚Bohemian Rhapsody‘ or ‚Roxanne,‘ any of those songs. They sound like people making music.

I make good music for long journeys.

It’s almost schizophrenic who I portray in my music.

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

Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.

It didn’t even occur to me that I’m the last person in the world who should play salsa or Brazilian music.

Too many Christians live their lives like slaves – to the devil – because they believe his lies more than they trust God.

I always loved that old song ‚Banks of the Ohio‘ – it was always such a man’s song, so I’ve always wanted to record it.

I get so excited when a song I wrote that’s very personal to me goes No. 1 and I look down and see people singing the words back to me.

There’s no point in saying anything but the truth.

I’m wallowing in the whole idea of just being a guy out there with a band, with songs. It’s a real enjoyment.

Trust is hard to come by. That’s why my circle is small and tight. I’m kind of funny about making new friends.

Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.

Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once it slips, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable.

I wanted to have the adoration of John Lennon but have the anonymity of Ringo Starr. I didn’t want to be a frontman. I just wanted to be back there and still be a rock and roll star at the same time.

I want you to be everything that’s you, deep at the center of your being.

Whenever I make music, it reflects where I’m at mentally.

At the end of the day, who I really and truly am is a little girl who loved to play the piano.

I’ll never tell a lie. I’ll never make a misleading statement. I’ll never betray the confidence that any of you had in me. And I’ll never avoid a controversial issue.

My mami and papi love my music. They’re always listening to the radio waiting for one of my songs to come on. And when it does, they turn up the volume – and turn it back down when it’s over.

I think that by staying true to myself and making music from my heart, the blessings come.

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

It is only in his music, which Americans are able to admire because a protective sentimentality limits their understanding of it, that the Negro in America has been able to tell his story.

You better take care of me Lord, if you don’t you’re gonna have me on your hands.

I’m different from any other designer, businesswise, in that I’ve built this company up and I own it. I never had business hype behind me to promote my image… My image is real… I have never had marketing people telling me what to do.

I tried to give the world a bit of creativity, lyrics. And for me, I will always represent music from Puerto Rico, reggaeton, Latin music.

I always say I wanna work with Alicia Keys. I’m in awe of her.

I love music, and after my first experience with movies, I can’t wait to do more.