R. Kelly Quotes

I thought the Billie Holiday comparison was beautiful. I think, Wow, what a wonderful, creative, helpful spirit. She's someone who wanted to help others by sharing her emotion. That's what I do, too, so I think that's a great comparison.

Everything was a song. Every conversation, every personal hurt, every observance of people in stress, happiness and love... if you could feel it, I could feel it. And I could write a song about it.

All I can say is if the part doesn't delight me in some way, or I can't feel any compassion for it, I just can't do it.

As a musician and a songwriter, it is an act of the ego to believe that other people might be interested in your point of view. But it is usually an empathetic nature that gets you going in the first place. Music keeps the heart porous in many ways.

The greatest music is made for love, not for money.

I think the music that you make, often it's even better if you identify with other people.

You have to connect with a song, and when you write it, that connection is already there. It's your baby; your passion is in that song.

We will always need to be reminded that we are human. Art gives us that.

The literary world is filled with good and generous people. But then that's what writing is all about - empathy.

There's no way to learn how to write a hit song. There's no formula for it. You just have to have it inside of you.

It's not something you can find. There's a moment you arrive at --- there's no words for it. A bunch of people come together at this place where a note hits your heart and your brain tells your finger where to go. It's an otherworldly thing, like when a painter gets the right combination of colors together.

I show them the funny part, the silly part, the laughing part, the crazy part and then the really deep, deep part where I'm talking from my heart to these people. Because I've been through everything they've been through.

I think there'll always be a kid with a guitar with a song in his heart that's going to turn me on - that's as far as I can see. Whether lots of people agree with that, I'm not sure.

People will come up to me at shows and tell me that a song touched them in a completely different way than I wrote it. That's fun. Fans translating it in their own way.

Oprah's stock in trade has always been her powerful unmediated connection. She could feel your pain and empower you to talk about it.

I just want to make everybody feel what I'm singing. And just to relate to me and know that this has been dream since I was a little girl. I've worked so hard for this, and I just want them to connect with me.

I write songs, and I sing them. I never formulated a plan; I can't tell anyone else how to do this. But it feels right, so I just kind of enjoy it and get on with it.

One of the things I have become aware of through the years is how much I love the people I write about.

Maybe what I'm trying to do is heal others. I think what we're trying to do in theater is heal someone.

Those who would make us feel, must feel themselves.

When a song comes to you, you can't run around it.

As a musician and a songwriter, it is an act of the ego to believe that other people might be interested in your point of view. But it is usually an empathetic nature that gets you going in the first place.

All of the best songs happen on a whim.

In order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is more potent than love?

My main goal as a songwriter is to make something that inspires people. To write things about my life that people can relate to. Whether it's a whole record or just one song for someone, I hope it can do that for them. Knowing that I have the ability to do that is inspiring to me.