Madonna

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

We learn our lessons; we get hurt; we want revenge. Then we realize that actually, happiness and forgiving people is the best revenge.

Beauty is where you find it.

We all fall to the floor at some point. It's how you pick yourself up that's the real challenge. Isn't it?

When people are busy making music and dancing, they're kind of too busy to hate and fight.

I'm not going to let public opinion dictate my own feelings about myself.

No one knows you better than you know yourself. Do the thing you want.

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.

My drive in life comes from a fear of being mediocre. That is always pushing me. I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being, but then I feel I am still mediocre and uninteresting unless I do something else. Because even though I have become somebody, I still have to prove that I am somebody. My struggle has never ended and I guess it never will.

I think that the world is not comfortable with female sexuality. It's always coming from a male point of view, and a woman is being objectified by a man — and even women are comfortable with that. But when a woman does it, ironically, women are uncomfortable with it. I think a lot of that has to do with conditioning.

For some reason, I feel like I never left high school, because I still feel that if you don't fit in, you're going to get your ass kicked. That hasn't really changed for me. I've always been acutely aware of differences and the way you are supposed to act if you want to be popular.

I never want my children to come to me and say they want to do something because everyone else is doing it. That doesn't interest me at all. You need to tell me your personal reasons about why it will benefit you, what you're going to get out of it, what it means to you. Otherwise, you're just a robot. You're not thinking for yourself.

I find whenever someone writes anything about me, my age is right after my name... It's almost like they're saying, 'Here she is, but remember she's this age, so she's not that relevant anymore.' Or 'Let's punish her by reminding her and everyone else.' When you put someone's age down, you're limiting them.

I have never lived an ordinary life. I think it's stupid for me and for anyone else, I don't think I would have become someone if I had made conventional choices.

I love being a notable figure in the history of entertainment in some sexual, tragic and comical way. I like to leave the same impression that made Marylin Monroe arouse different feelings in people.

I said, 'Wait a minute, isn't Price running around with fishnets and high heels and lipstick and his butt hanging out?' Yes. He was. But he was a man. This was the first time I truly understood that women really did not have the same freedom as men.

He made me think there were no rules. I was wrong. There are no rules if you're a boy.

Life is a paradox and it doesn't make much sense.

Freedom comes when you learn to let go, creation comes when you learn to say no.

Nothing takes the past away like the future.