Keke Palmer Quotations

When I was, like, 5 years old, I used to pray to have light skin because I would always hear how pretty that little light skin girl was, or I would hear I was pretty to be dark skin. It wasn't until I was 13 that I really learned to appreciate my skin color and know that I was beautiful.

If you focus more on the inside, you'll feel just as great about the outside. I feel attractive when I'm doing good and helping people.

Don't depend on a guy for your happiness. You have to live your own life and do your own thing. That's when good things come around - when you do your own thing and you're not worried about a man. It will happen in due time.

Giving back, doing motivational speeches and stuff like that, that's always made me feel good. If you repeatedly go out there, and you are the change that you want to see, then that's what you are.

I think people should have fun. And don't get so down on yourself. Enjoy life and be the best person you can be.

You can do anything as long as you don't stop believing. When it is meant to be, it will be. You just have to follow your heart.

I'm a workaholic, so I ignore the signs of fatigue and just keep going and going, and then conk out when I get home. It can be pretty stressful.

Corbin Bleu was my first kiss in life. I was 12, and he was, like, my first kiss for TV It was on the lips!

I love competing. I love a challenge. I love going in and showing people what I can do, proving to them that I can get this part, that I can give you what you want.

I would like to do a music person's story, a bio. I've wanted to do Aaliyah forever. But I don't want it to always be like, 'I'm singing again in a movie.'

The music industry is something that I'm still trying to understand. With acting, I've been doing it for so long that I understand every aspect of it for the most part - there are obviously still more aspects that I need to learn - but I have a grasp on it. With music, I'm still learning. I'm still getting used to it.

Comedians like to see people smile. With acting, I love giving people a feeling, an emotion. I like to give people a feeling. When they come away from my scene, I want them to think.

I've never really had a first date! Well, I had kind of a first date. I went out with this kid. We went ice skating, but it was not fun. It was so terrible that I told him my curfew was a lot earlier than it really was.

I feel like you have to tell people who you are, but you don't have to be disrespectful about it. But you also don't have to be a shrinking violet.

Follow your heart's truth with no need for personal gain other than the feeling produced when doing what you truly love.

I love music and I love acting. I always keep that in the forefront, not all the other distractions around me.

Real faith is when you believe in something that you can't see. When things are going really bad and you can still get up and say I believe that they're gonna get better, that there's a higher lesson to what I'm going through. It can be hard sometimes, and to turn it around like that, that's true faith.

You have to understand that when things go wrong in your life, it doesn't mean you need to quit. It means you need to get stronger and change your plan.

I don't wish for anything. Wishing for a million dollars feels greedy. I just wish for the best for me.

Whatever my situation is, I want to show that I'm not perfect, and perfect isn't real. The youth need to know that, especially.

I always try to set a positive example for my generation and promote confidence.

I can dance. I like hip hop and stuff and jazz movements, but I'm horrible in ballet. I tried.

We need to stop separating ourselves by how dark or how light we are.

You should never look at somebody and say, 'I wish I had their life,' because you never really know what struggles they're going through.

I can't even tell anyone how it feels when I'm acting, I don't mean to say that I don't have to try. But there's something in my heart that explodes, and I feel like I understand. When I'm acting, I feel like so in control and so centered. This is something that I solely get from acting and music. It's like love itself.

I can't work all day and then go home and hang out with the same people. I don't want everything to revolve around the entertainment business. Yes, that's my career, but it's not my life.

I'm happy with who I am inside. I'd hate to have accolades and all that and not really be happy with who I was. So I'm really thankful for my family and for the support system that I have for being the person that I am today. I'm proud of who I am.

People that want to be in the tabloids will get into the tabloids. I just stay home and don't go out much. My personality is not an introvert, but that's how I am as far as going out to parties. I just stay in my house and hang out with friends.

When I was a kid, people people would always say, 'Oh you look like Chilli from TLC.' It wasn't until I did 'Akeelah and the Bee' that people started saying I looked like Angela Bassett, but before then it was Chilli.

Working with Ice Cube was so tight. He's cool, and I really like how he does family stuff. My guy friends couldn't believe I was chillin' with him. Dudes love Ice Cube.

I think you can do anything you put your mind to. I think your mind is the worst thing you can use as a reason to not do something.

Just as many people that love me, hate me, too. I get really mean, mean, mean, mean comments on Twitter, and it just comes with the territory.

I love singing and I love performing and just making things perfect.

My father's a deacon, my mother's a choir director, so I grew up in the church and singing in the choir, begging my mom if I could have a solo.

My parents are my role models. All they've done for me, they're just major people in my life. They've stood by me and got me where I am today.

Some of my favorite style icons are Kate Moss and Rihanna, except I'm a little bit younger. I put a little bit more teenage into it.

Someday I would really love to do a talk show. That's something I've always been interested in. I like to talk, and I love to help people.

You're going to have to speak up for yourself - and I learned that after always being, for lack of a better word, crapped on.

Anytime you see Beyonce, Jay Z, Kanye West. Anytime a young black person's doing good, that's motivation for everybody else. Anytime, anytime, it's motivation. Use that fuel to push you forward. That's what I did.

I didn't come from a lot. I had a lot of love and support from my family, but as far as money and that type of thing, I didn't really have any of that. All I did was follow my dreams. If my fans take anything from me, I hope it would be that.

I love clothes! I shop everywhere, but I like Urban Outfitters, Forever 21, Nordstrom, and Neiman Marcus. It's a wide range. I'm from California, and I love the Pasadena Flea Market.

Anything that controls my state of mind I never really want to do because I always want to be under control. That might be part of me being a Virgo. I never want to do something that stops me from being in control of who I am and my actions.

There's not always going to be something out there for you, especially not a positive role, so once you get up there and start being well known, you can't just think projects will come to you. You have to start doing your own projects because if you don't, you'll miss out, and eventually your fame will be over.

Actually, Keke is my nickname. When I was little, my sister was about four years old, and she had an imaginary friend named Keke. And she wanted my name to be Keke.

As you age, you start to realize that your emotions are in your hands and not someone else's. Once you put them in someone else's hands, that's when you give them the power, and you can't change it. Only they can change it.

I was bullied a lot as a kid in school from kindergarten up to third grade. I know what it feels like to be left out and to want to be different - more so, to want to not be different and want to just fit in.

I'm a mash-up of everyone. My influences would be Michael Jackson, Brandy, Aaliyah - those types of people. So if you can imagine them - and with me taking them, and then putting my own twist and the influence on it - that's musically what I would sound like.

I've been able to stay good because of my family and keeping God first. If you don't have God in your life, how are you going to navigate through this world?

When people think of me initially, they remember me as 'Akeelah.' Sometimes it can be frustrating to be remembered at an age that you've outgrown.

I definitely want to play someone who's inspired me. I would love to play Aaliyah; it would be personal because I love her so much.

I don't curl my hair. In fact, I don't know how to.

I love being in the studio. Expressing myself that way is really cool.

I never try to be too sexy. People know when you're not comfortable and trying to be sexy.

I sometimes want to do totally different roles. I don't always want to play 'wholesome.'

I work out. I'm getting toned, too. The Wii Fit really works your body. When I get off, I'm dying.

I'm not a huge musical fan. It's like when people just jump out singing; it's not real.

Singing was my first passion. Whenever I sing, I'm always so happy.

Whether it be in acting, music, or even in dancing, I only want to do things that I truly connect to, and with my music, it's everything that I am.

Even though I'm in the industry and I act and all this stuff, I still suffer from self-esteem issues... from the way that I look or the way that I talk... just nitpicking at myself.

I really look up to Will Smith. He's internationally known, and people know him from everything. I don't know any kid who hasn't seen and liked Fresh Prince, or you'll like one of his movies or his music. He's perfect, and he's done everything. That's my dream: to be internationally known.

I have a few celebrity friends, but I'm really not into the whole Hollywood scene. I like to separate myself from my work. It stresses me out if I do too much of the same.

I'm totally normal. I love watching movies and hanging out with my friends at my house. I still go to the mall; I love to text and go on my computer. I'm totally normal - sounds kind of boring, right?

Urban Outfitters - I love it. It's almost like Forever 21, but for, like, the 24- to 25-year-old girl, getting a little bit older.

Doing motivational speeches and stuff like that, that's always made me feel good.

I dont wish for anything. Wishing for a million dollars feels greedy. I just wish for the best for me.

Being of service is something that really makes me happy. Being able to tell young kids about something they might never have known without meeting someone with my experiences is what really what I feel it's all about. I feel that's the only way that you get fulfillment out of life.

Whenever I get to talk to young girls like me I always say, 'The only difference between you and I is that I know that I'm special and you just don't know that you are yet.'

I feel like I've reached a point where music has become just as much a priority to me as my acting, and I'm glad to feel that way.

I changed the pressure from negative to positive. So, instead of thinking everybody wanted to see me fail, I decided everybody wanted to see me win, since I wanted to see myself win.

Often, kids don't appreciate the choices available, as if it's either the street or nothing.

Something that was instilled in me by my parents at a very young age is that there is no happy life without a life of service. Over the course of my career, I've been fortunate to always encounter others who share that philosophy.

I decided to not be so dismissive of my music in favor of my acting. Acting has been such a consistent thing for me; a lot of times in the past, I wouldn't have had the confidence with my music to really make it a part of my schedule. I would easily push it to the side, or I would easily take up time that was needed for it. I'm not that way anymore. Now, I really want to make everything work. I want to continue to do both at the highest level that I can.

Be true to your heart, and if you're passionate about your dream, work towards it but don't allow your idea of how you think it should manifest prevent what's actually unfolding from happening.

I like to read quotes that touch on how I am feeling [on social media]. If I am dealing with confusion, I will read quotes about clarity and peace of mind. I started posting these quotes on my Twitter page, and the fans responded so positively! I realized that many of them were dealing with similar issues, and the quotes helped to open up a genuine dialogue between us.

I started to make a joke that I had an imaginary friend underneath the let-out couch named Binky. I would never talk to him; I would only use him as entertainment for other people. I knew they thought that children had imaginary friends, so I was like, "I don't really believe in imaginary friends, but I want to feel like I do." I used to make a joke, "My imaginary friend Binky says this," because I knew it would get a laugh out of them.

Not being happy really is my fear.

I would love to direct videos and that's what it keeps moving towards, but I have to stop being scared in order to do that.

Learn to love yourself and all that other stuff will not matter

Sometimes things seem too good to be true.

As a kid growing up, the most simple things would make me so, so excited. I remember the first time my dad got a let-out couch; you could sleep in it like a bed and my sister and I just thought that was so magical.

Sometimes, when you grow up in one of these poverty-stricken neighborhoods where the educational system isn't the best, you don't realize that you have any choices.

I'm definitely a perfectionist. I started entertaining so young. I think naturally my personality is that of a perfectionist, and then on top of that, growing up in the industry I became very objective and analytical of myself early on and I find myself doing that in everything. It works good in my work, but sometimes it can be annoying, I imagine, to people in my life.

I've always been who I've been. I've always been this person.

I come from a very small, poor town just outside of the Chicago area and I know what it's like to dream and accomplish some of your goals, but I would never want to do a show where I am preaching to anyone because I do not like being preached at. I want to learn right along with my audience and every show will be a collaborative effort. I am so thankful to Debra Lee and everyone at the BET Network for providing me with this unique opportunity and platform.

It's very fun to be single, because you know what happens? You find yourself. You understand what it means to love yourself, instead of putting all this energy into give-and-tug in a relationship.

God is so good. Always follow your dreams, own your Purpose! Embrace God's Anointing

Like my little sister and brother, I always play them my music because I want people like them to be able to relate to my music. They always know what's going on; they're up on what's new. For me, when they hear my music and they like it, I'm on the right track.

The one thing you absolutely need is the one thing you can never lose: God's presence and love for you. Just have to talk to him.

If there's a certain song that I want to reach a certain person or certain type of person, that's when I play it for people.

Love yourself. Nobody's perfect. I mean, come on, nobody is perfect. Not you, not your mom, even the people on TV - nobody is perfect, and there's always something that nobody likes, but you know, you just accept that. Your imperfections make you beautiful. It's those things you find you don't like that someone else finds very special and very unique about you.