Madonna Ciccone People Quotations

I know I'm not the greatest singer or dancer, but that doesn't interest me, I'm interested in being provocative and pushing people's buttons.

I think in the end, when you're famous, people like to narrow you down to a few personality traits. I think I've just become this ambitious, say-whatever's-on-her-mind, intimidating person. And that's part of my personality, but it's certainly not anywhere near the whole thing.

We like to put people on a pedestal, give them one character trait, and if they step outside of that shrinelike area that we blocked out for them, then we will punish them.

Sometimes you want to go for a walk and you don't want to be watched. You just want to be anonymous and blend in. Especially when I travel, I feel that way, because I can't really go out and see a city the way other people can and I miss out on a lot.

I'm opening gyms around the world to encourage people to get in shape and feel good about themselves; bringing art through dance to gyms to make my gyms different from other people's.

In this business, my business, I get to meet all kinds of incredible people, fascinating people, glamorous people and sexy people and highly intellectual people. And you meet them and you go 'interesting, interesting, interesting'. They're interesting, but not very many people stop you in your tracks.

I have my work and my faith... If that's boring to some people, I can't tell you how much I don't care.

I guess some people are brilliant enough to be brilliant on their own and never doubt anything and come up with fabulous things. But I think it's good to get into arguments with people and have them say, 'That sucks' or 'You're crazy' or 'That's cheesy' or 'What do you think of this?'

Men are such power-seeking creatures, and they usually kill people to get to the throne.

I think a lot of people have a problem with the fact that I've adopted an African child, a child who has a different color skin than I do.

Being famous has changed a lot, because now there's so many outlets, between magazines, TV shows, and the Internet, for people to stalk and follow you. We created the monster.

I just find the people I want to work with and put it all together, and it's a lot of hard work, and all kinds of catastrophes happen, but I don't really get too much resistance. But when you make a movie, it seems like there's nothing but resistance. It's kind of a miracle that any movie ever gets made.

I'm encouraging other people, whether they're professionals or not, to use their creativity to express themselves, to get a conversation going, to get the party started, really.

Of course, my interests and my focus change and become more diverse, more worldly. At the same time, I am interested in the simple basics, which is I love to dance and I love to make people dance.

People hear the soul, black influence in my voice. I grew up listening to CKLW and all the black stations like WLBS.

I grew up in a high school where it was very conservative, and I felt like people disapproved of me, and I felt like an outsider.

There's always elements of danger in New York, but people are always out on the street. I don't feel scared there at all.

People like it when others are gossiping. When you hear a story about someone's demise or some big faux-pas they made, everyone wants to tune into it, because it's nice to know that someone else made a mistake. It makes you feel elevated for a moment.

When you make a movie, it's just a huge bureaucracy because movies cost so much money. Millions of people get involved, and pretty soon the creative idea gets tramped on and watered down or filtered through a huge system.

I came to the realization that a strong female is frightening to everybody, because all societies are male-dominated - black societies, poor people, rich people, any racial group, they're all dominated by men. A strong female is going to threaten everybody across the board.

People love pitting strong females against each other.

People have no morals, I swear to God. The things that people do for ratings! It's unforgivable.

I'm sure other people have a very strange view of my lifestyle.

People think they will wake up one day and I'll be gone. But I'm never going away.

Art can heal it if art is allowed to exist. And if art is slowly wiped off the face of the planet, then what tools do we have to reach people, to appeal to them and all of their senses?

As much as I think I've inspired people in the world, I'd like to be more involved bringing about world peace.

I actually always try to have a moment in my show where I can just lay down on stage and talk to people for a little while.

People who have nothing better to do than talk about my hair color have no lives.

You don't want to be the smartest person in the room; you want to be the dumbest in the room. You want to be surrounded by other thinking people who are going to say something that makes you think, "Oh, my God, that's an amazing idea. Why didn't I think of that."

People think that being famous is just about having your picture taken all the time and being rich rich rich, and you know what?... They're absolutely right.

I like that you have four minutes to zero in on something and evoke a specific feeling and take people on some sort of journey.

People who listen to them properly don't underestimate them. Unfortunately, there's so much about my career and me that distracts people from the actual content of most of my songs.

The only way we know we love ourselves and the people in our life is by the agreements we are willing to make and keep

Younger people are generally more adventurous - they're more open, more fun - have you met many guys my age? Guys my age are married or divorced or grumpy, fat and balding.

I don't care anymore if people dress like me, now I want them to think like me.

I like to be a team player. All the projects I do are collaborations. And I want to solicit the opinions and help of other people. I'm not interested in being the one in charge.

Economic markets are collapsing. People all over the world are suffering and people afraid. What happens when peep are afraid? They become intolerant.

I want people to be moved, to feel called to action. That's what I want to do.

The fact of the matter is that you can use your beauty and use your charm and be flirtatious, and you can get people interested in your beauty. But you cannot maintain that. In the end, talent is the only thing. My work is the only thing that's going to change any minds.

It's not enough to raise awareness. You have to give people solutions, and you have to invite them to get involved in whatever way they can, whether that's doing volunteer work or taking a portion of their salary and figuring out where they want that money to go. You have to find ways to inspire people to get involved.

People want to hear the dirt. But this is not really anything I want to talk about.

I think all of us make the mistake of thinking we're going to change people when we get together. But we're not. People are who they are. And people change in their own time.

When the day is done the most important thing is loving people and sharing love.

When I discovered that I could write music, it felt like the most natural way for me to connect with people and tell my stories. I've always thought of that as what I do: I tell stories.

Filmmaking is such a collaboration. At a certain point, I suppose you do have to let go and trust the people you're working with.

The one thing I don't understand is when people make comments who are clearly not fans of mine. I think, why are you here? Why are you wasting your time? It's fascinating.

The world is not so kind, people trap your mind.

My work gives me a sense of purpose that I never really had before - it gives me a lot of joy, and it would be wonderful to invite other people to get involved.

Many people see Eva Peron as either a saint or the incarnation of Satan. That means I definitely can identify with her.

Start saving your pennies now. People spend $300 on crazy things all the time, things like handbags. So work all year, scrape the money together, and come to my show. I’m worth it.

I see a huge paradox in me - the intense need to be loved and the search for approval juxtaposed with the need to nurture other people, to be the mother I never had.

I've gone from having a huge fan base to losing a huge fan base to having a kind of fluctuating fan base. I've always had a core of fans who've stuck by me but, depending on the kind of music I do, I end up appealing to certain groups of people and alienating others.

It amazes me when I talk to people in their early 20s and they've never read the classics, things we read as children. When you don't have knowledge and understanding, then fear rises in you.

I was never appalled by myself. I felt a little bit uneasy about certain things. But honestly I've learned to love myself and to see that in the midst of all my ambition and desire to succeed and my search for approval, I do give things to people. I bring some sort of happiness to their lives. So I'm not so hard on myself anymore.

I think that life is a paradox and you have to embrace that in your work and your belief systems.... You can't be a literalist, and that's the trouble that people always find themselves in. That's why people always hit a wall with any of my stuff, because you can't take it literally.

Music.... makes the people..... come together......

When my world seems to crumble all around, and foolish people try to bring me down, I just think of your smile face, and I'm flying.

If you're sure of who you are it doesn't really matter what people call you, does it?

I miss New York. I still love how people talk to you on the street - just assault you and tell you what they think of your jacket.

I hate polite conversation. I hate it when people stand around and go, 'Hi, how are you?' I hate words that don't have any reason or meaning. Also I hate it when people smoke in elevators and closed in places. It's just so rude.

People have this idea that if you're sexual and beautiful and provocative, then there's nothing else you could possibly offer.

I think art should be controversial. I think it should make people think.

The media is something that affects a lot of people, so you're constantly trying to strike a balance between respecting something and not caring about it.

All the criticism is ultimately a blessing in disguise. Because now people know about Malawi [due to the child adoption]. And now people know about the orphans there. And hopefully it's gonna turn around. And a positive is gonna come out of the negative.

One is that we are all responsible for our actions, our behavior, and our words, and we must take responsibility for everything we say and do. I am the architect of my destiny. You can`t blame other people for things that happened to you.

What is the big deal about Eminem? Since when is offensive language a reason for being unpopular? I like the fact that Eminem is brash and angry and politically incorrect. At least he has an opinion. He's stirring things up. He's provoking a discussion. He's making people's blood boil. He's reflecting what's going on in society right now. That is what art is supposed to do.

I like coming up with these spectacular extravaganzas that will, hopefully, totally blow people away. But I also like the intimacy of stopping it all and sitting at the edge of the stage and connecting with individual people in the audience.

We're very privileged as Americans - it's easy to forget about the rest of the world and to think that your problems are the most important problems. Even poor people in America live better than poor people most everywhere else.

Some people are medicating themselves all the time so that they don't have to embrace themselves. If you can't feel, you can't embrace.

Honestly, I don't read newspapers, magazines, whatever. They're just not part of my lexicon. I don't want to be manipulated, or manipulated about other people's work.

The idea of service to humanity, putting yourself in situations where people have much less than you do, puts life in perspective.

Once you start turning over rocks and reaching out to help people, there's a whole avalanche coming right behind it. And it seems never-ending. But when you see the fruits of your labor, you feel like it's possible.

I'd love to be a memorable figure in the history of entertainment in some sexual, comic, tragic way. I'd like to leave the impression that Marilyn Monroe did, to be able to arouse so many different feelings in people.

I'm not claiming to appeal to the same people that Christina Aguilera or Britney Spears are going to appeal to. I'm not trying to. I'm doing what I want to do.

Some people out there think everything I do is a publicity stunt, they think when I go to the bathroom it's a publicity stunt.

I wouldn't say I wanna conquer the world anymore. But I want to be a part of making the world a better place. I want to inspire people and I wanna be part of the solution.

Manipulating people, that's what I'm good at

I'm so used to people slagging me off. Since the beginning of my career I've been told I have no talent, I can't sing and I'm a one-hit wonder.

The thing I love most about being famous is people listening to me when I have something important to say.

We live in a world where people like to pit women against each other. And this is why I love the idea of embracing other females who are doing what I'm doing. It's important for us to support each other.

It's none of your business what people say about you.

I want to appeal to people's sense of humanity and interconnectedness. I feel like I have the platform I'm standing on for a reason. It's not just to make people happy and get people to dance and sing, to feel an escape. It's also to get people to listen and to bring important issues to the forefront.

I've always been under scrutiny. But I used to just not really pay attention to what people said.

Sometimes you just have to go and make a mess of things to get people to pay attention.

To me, the most important thing - aside from meeting people's physical needs, whether that's education, health care, clothing, food, a roof over their heads - is changing the mind-set and educating people. And most of all, most important, is empowering people and making them self-sustaining.

The physical body is assembled just like a chair or a building or a flower, but the revolutions we start, the people we affect and inspire, that is eternal. So, in that respect, we do achieve immortality, and that makes me less fearful.

I hope I will always have the ability to create art and live in a world where I can speak freely, and I can inspire people. I don't know what form that will take.