To this day, some of my closest friends say, ‚Gaga, you know, everything’s great. You’re a singer; your dreams have come true.‘ But, still, when certain things are said to you over and over again as you’re growing up, it stays with you and you wonder if they’re true.

People are looking for something a little more stable; people are feeling like they need to get closer to God.

I’m all about evolution. I’m the first person to judge myself.

I made bad decisions. I’m not denying that I made bad decisions.

Growing old has been the greatest surprise of my life.

If you are living out of a sense of obligation you are slave.

Only by contending with challenges that seem to be beyond your strength to handle at the moment you can grow more surely toward the stars.

I am just one human being.

I’m a decent cook; I’m a decent chef. None of my friends would ever have hired me at any point in my career. Period.

I always wanted a family.

I was in a terrible mess in my childhood.

The one thing that I keep learning over and over again is that I don’t know nothing. I mean, that’s my life lesson.

A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.

I’m not a natural joiner.

There’s a deceptive sin that can keep us from walking in love: pride. It’s deceptive because when you have pride, you’re usually too proud to admit it. I know this because I used to have teachings on pride and they didn’t sell well.

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

What is true belongs to me!

People who truly understand what is meant by self-reliance know they must live their lives by ethics rather than rules.

‚Victory‘ is like, you won, so the question is, what? What did you win? I think that the songs go into that. It’s just about reaching a place in myself.

Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.

For me, already being part of a single parent household and knowing it was just me and my mom, you’d would wake up times and hope that the next day you’d be able to be alongside your mother because she was out trying to make sure that I was taken care of. But all I cared about was her being home.

I don’t think I’m bad for people. If I did think I was bad for people, I would go back to driving a truck, and I really mean this.

My whole life has been one big improvisation.

To accuse others for one’s own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.

You don’t look out there for God, something in the sky, you look in you.

I have so much in my life. I want to be of value to the world.

But sports carried me away from being in a gang, or being associated with drugs. Sports was my way out.

Remembering what you’ve been through and how that has strengthened your mindset can lift you out of a negative brain loop and help you bypass those weak, one-second impulses to give in. Even if you’re feeling low and beat down by life right now, I guarantee you can think of a time or two when you overcame odds and tasted success.

Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.

I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.

The experience of pain or loss can be a formidably motivating force.

Playing Etta James in the movie ‚Cadillac Records‘ really changed me. It was a darker character, and I realized that if anything is too comfortable, I want to run from it. It’s no fun being safe.

I’m sure like everyone else I’m not always the happiest if I don’t do a good job in quali or the race or whatever, so I think beating myself up sometimes makes me work harder.

I’m intimidated by the fear of being average.

I mean we all need a second chance sometimes.

I don’t want to make money, I just want to be wonderful.

Basically you have to suppress your own ambitions in order to be who you need to be.

I think I’m like most people – we fear the unknown and the things that have yet to come to pass, which are the very things that don’t deserve to be feared. When you give God complete control, it’s very hard not to be fearless.

Every setback means you’re one step closer to seeing the dream come to pass.

I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.

Needing to have things perfect is the surest way to immobilize yourself with frustration.

It’s amazing: I am a New Yorker. It’s strange; I never thought I would be.

I had a period where I thought I might not be good enough to publish.

You’ve got to learn to survive a defeat. That’s when you develop character.

I always wanted to know, and I always used to daydream, about what it would be like to stand on a really big stage and sing songs for a lot of people, songs that I had written… Daydreaming was kind of my No. 1 thing when I was little, because I didn’t have much of a social life going on.

Everybody should do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice.

Although I write screenplays, I don’t think I’m a very good writer.

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.

My childhood did not prepare me for the fact that the world is full of cruel and bitter things.

Whenever I’m around some who is modest, I think, ‚Run like hell and all of fire.‘ You don’t want modesty, you want humility.

One thing about me is I try to be honest.

People who don’t know the true character of God – who don’t believe He is merciful, gracious and slow to anger – can never have a close, personal, intimate relationship with Him.

I’m not generally a sensitive person, but I tend to be more sensitive toward others and what they’re going through. I don’t know if that’s the healthiest thing, but it’s the truth.

I keep working because I learn something new all the time.

Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.

Where I grew up – I grew up on the north side of Akron, lived in the projects. So those scared and lonely nights – that’s every night. You hear a lot of police sirens, you hear a lot of gunfire. Things that you don’t want your kids to hear growing up.

In so many ways, segregation shaped me, and education liberated me.

Success is only meaningful and enjoyable if it feels like your own.

Your most important work is always ahead of you, never behind you.

Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.