Quotes by Anita Baker

Completeness? Happiness? These words don't come close to describing my emotions. There truly is nothing I can say to capture what motherhood means to me, particularly given my medical history.

— Anita Baker

Happiness

You leave home to seek your fortune and, when you get it, you go home and share it with your family.

— Anita Baker

Wisdom

I'm picking and choosing in terms of the stress factor. If it's not fun, I'm not going to do it.

— Anita Baker

Wisdom

If I could be doing anything, I'd be laying on the floor in my birthday suit eating junk food and watching something dumb on TV.

— Anita Baker

Wisdom

If you have your own agenda and your own style and you don't easily conform to what the masses are doing, you're looked upon as being difficult. Whereas, I think of it as just being an individual.

— Anita Baker

Wisdom

I don't let people use me. That's why I like a small number of people in my life. The more people in my life, the more complex it becomes, so I just try to keep it at a minimum.

— Anita Baker

Life

My father worked on assembly lines in Detroit while I was growing up. Every day, I watched him do what he needed to do to support the family. But he told me, 'Life is short. Do what you want to do.'

— Anita Baker

Success

Applause felt like approval, and it became a drug that soothed the pain, but only temporarily.

— Anita Baker

Wisdom

As soon as you get off stage, that's the most dangerous time for a singer to kiss people because your vocal chords are receptive to any kind of germ.

— Anita Baker

Wisdom

Time has nothing to do with the gifts that the gods give you; it's what you do.

— Anita Baker

Wisdom

I'd love to be the political voice of my generation, but that's not my gift.

— Anita Baker

Love

It's impossible to write and produce a record when your parents are dying. I really tried, I really, really tried, but it just wouldn't come.

— Anita Baker

Wisdom

Long tresses down to the floor can be beautiful, if you have that, but learn to love what you have.

— Anita Baker

Love

Oh my goodness, they are rocking so many variations of my high-top fade. I mean, Rihanna has taken it to a very angular 21st Century thing. Miss Fantasia has it in a very seductive, you know, up-flip, and it's just lovely, right? Oh, I think it's wonderful.

— Anita Baker

Wisdom

We don't do drugs, drink or use profanity. Instead we instill morals and values in my boys by raising them with a love of God and a love and respect for themselves and all people. I believe they will have a chance.

— Anita Baker

Love

I would say that my peak was making my first million at the ripe age of 29, after the first album.

— Anita Baker

Wisdom

Chris Brown is brilliant. That cat is crazy brilliant, and I wish him the best.

— Anita Baker

Wisdom

Historically, in my generation, all of my heroes and heroines have had issues and problems. We all do.

— Anita Baker

Wisdom

I don't think being black has held me back at all. Being black makes you strong.

— Anita Baker

Wisdom

I need my career. That's what validates me.

— Anita Baker

Success

I think there's no sacrifice too great for family, whether it's career, singing, whatever.

— Anita Baker

Success

I used to sing at funeral homes for families that didn't have a vocalist. I didn't get paid. I needed to sing.

— Anita Baker

Wisdom

I would make far more money if every song were my own, but I don't write to fill up the album with my songs.

— Anita Baker

Wisdom

I'm used to getting up at 7, getting breakfast, getting the kids off to school, and doing the mommy thing and the wife thing and the daughter thing.

— Anita Baker

Wisdom