Quotes by Erykah Badu

I think a lot of people have lost respect for the individual, you know, the individual, the person who doesn't conform.

— Erykah Badu

Wisdom

I don't feel like I need to preach to the world or nothing like that. I just feel like I share what I say, and if listeners get it, they get it. And I never underestimate the audience's ability to feel me.

— Erykah Badu

Life

Hip-hop was created out of necessity. We needed to create some digitized things to help us understand what we were feeling.

— Erykah Badu

Wisdom

I grew up with all mothers, all women. I come from a long line of matriarchs, very strong women.

— Erykah Badu

Wisdom

I'm a complete human being. I'm very emotional and loving. I feel, I hurt, I give, I take, and also I think. I analyze. I'm a sociologist, anthropologist.

— Erykah Badu

Life

I'm a woman who has gone through many heartaches, enough to dedicate my whole life to trying to figure them out.

— Erykah Badu

Love

I planned my success. I knew it was going to happen.

— Erykah Badu

Success

I have advice for people - period - who are in unhealthy relationships: Follow your heart. It will get you to where you need to be. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's easy, the places that your heart takes you. But continue to follow it. Where the train leads you - you'll get there.

— Erykah Badu

Love

And I figured out that the reason I couldn't get through the day as well as I can now is because I had too many things on my mind, on my plate, you know, for one person to have. So I started to eliminate some of the things that were too heavy to carry and unnecessary.

— Erykah Badu

Wisdom

The music business is motivated by money. Music is motivated by energy and feelings.

— Erykah Badu

Wisdom

I am not systematic at all when it comes to religion. I just love life. And I'm not judgmental. And I'm a vegetarian.

— Erykah Badu

Love

I have a master plan as an artist. I've always said I'm not going to be punching nobody's clock. I will work as an artist to survive in this world.

— Erykah Badu

Success

What I work hard at doing is staying on a path of being kind and showing and proving that I'm a good person to society. That's hard. The talent, that's a gift. I just came here like that.

— Erykah Badu

Success

Artists need some kind of stimulating experience a lot of times, which crystallizes when you sing about it or paint it or sculpt it. You literally mold the experience the way you want. It's therapy.

— Erykah Badu

Wisdom

When you're in a relationship you want it to work. My parents did, I did. But we are not taught how to make it work.

— Erykah Badu

Success

Well, if you look at all of the cultures in America, this is a great opportunity for us to really get acquainted with the rest of the world. America is the only place you can do that, but we don't have sense enough to take advantage of that.

— Erykah Badu

Life

I consider my musical ability to be a gift from the Creator. It's not that I try to work hard or nothing like that, it's a gift, it was given to me, and I appreciate it.

— Erykah Badu

Success

I'm free. I just do what I want, say what I want, say how I feel, and I don't try to hurt nobody. I just try to make sure that I don't compromise my art in any kind of way, and I think people respect that.

— Erykah Badu

Wisdom

Music and the music business are two different things.

— Erykah Badu

Wisdom

Anything that had to do with art I been doing all my life. It was a gift. It's nothing I work real hard at doing.

— Erykah Badu

Success

It's almost like a lot of black people in America, a lot of young black men, are born with this cloud over their heads. It's their penitentiary cloud, this philosophy we all have, that it's harder for us.

— Erykah Badu

Wisdom

Honey isn't really that good for you.

— Erykah Badu

Wisdom

Personally, I don't choose any particular religion or symbol or group of words or teachings to define me. That's between me and the most high. You know, my higher self. The Creator.

— Erykah Badu

Wisdom

I try to be honest and I keep moving.

— Erykah Badu

Truth