Men are such power-seeking creatures, and they usually kill people to get to the throne.
— Madonna Ciccone
There's always elements of danger in New York, but people are always out on the street. I don't feel scared there at all.
You realise that having a number one record and being loved and adored isn't the most important thing in the world. But at the same time, I don't have a problem with it. What I'm trying to say is, I'm not a reluctant pop star.
Writing is a very intimate thing, especially when you write lyrics and sing them in front of someone for the first time. It's like a really embarrassing situation. To me, singing is almost like crying, and you have to really know someone before you can start crying in front of them.
I'm always looking for something new: a new inspiration, a new philosophy, a new way to look at something, new talent.
I'm guilty of eating Magnum bars before I go to sleep at night.
If you have children, you know you're responsible for somebody. You realize you are being imitated; your belief systems and priorities have a direct influence on these children, who are like flowers in a garden.
I love being a mother. My children fill me up in many ways, and inspire me in many ways, but I need a partner in my life, and I think most people feel that way.
I was named after my mother. And I guess when I started making records, Madonna Ciccone seemed too long and complicated, and I just got stuck with Madonna.
Growing up, I didn't feel cool; I didn't fit into any crowd.
I want to give a child a life who wouldn't be given a life. I want a child that nobody else wants.
One of the things that helps me tell a story through music is to create a character. I have to have a muse, whether it's Frida Kahlo, Martha Graham, Marlene Dietrich, or Pippi Longstocking.
One thing I've learned is that I'm not the owner of my talent; I'm the manager of it.
Making movies is really hard. It's the hardest thing I've ever done.
I tend to write during the day so I can see my children at night. But if my kids aren't with me and I have a chunk of time when I'm a single woman living in my house for a miraculous week, I will get to write at different hours.
I hope that I inspire women to believe in themselves, no matter where they come from; no matter what education they have; what particular background they originate from.
Imagine if someone like John Lennon or Bob Marley, Sid Vicious, Picasso, whomever, were doing their work, and some corporation, some CEO, some branding entity was saying to you, 'Well, you can do that, but you've got to remove this aspect of your work.' There would no longer be that purity anymore.
People like it when others are gossiping. When you hear a story about someone's demise or some big faux-pas they made, everyone wants to tune into it, because it's nice to know that someone else made a mistake. It makes you feel elevated for a moment.
I refuse to act the way someone expects me to.
Where you record is very important. It can't be too nice, it can't be too expensive, it can't have a view to an ocean or a field.
I know there's more to life than making lots of money and being successful and even getting married and having a family.
I live - I live a highly scheduled life. There's absolutely no time wasted. I'm very focused. And I have a great assistant.
I think it's fun to get in a room and sweat with people. I'm happy to share my workouts with everyone.
Being famous has changed a lot, because now there's so many outlets, between magazines, TV shows, and the Internet, for people to stalk and follow you. We created the monster.
I think of myself as a performance artist. I hate being called a pop star. I hate that.
I had decided that if I was going to be a singer, I had to earn it. I had to learn how to play an instrument.
Stevie Wonder and Diana Ross and the Jackson 5, that's what I grew up on.
When I went to Africa, I was reduced to floods of tears every day.
My physical transformations - like changing my hair - are usually a reflection of what's inspiring me at the moment.
We like to put people on a pedestal, give them one character trait, and if they step outside of that shrinelike area that we blocked out for them, then we will punish them.
I've always been acutely aware of differences and the way you are supposed to act if you want to be popular.
In England especially, I've found that if you bring up King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson at a dinner party or a social gathering, it's like throwing a Molotov cocktail into the room.
Of course, my interests and my focus change and become more diverse, more worldly. At the same time, I am interested in the simple basics, which is I love to dance and I love to make people dance.
I believe that we are at a very low level of consciousness, and we do not know how to treat each other as human beings. We are caught up in our own lives, our own needs, our own ego gratification. I feel a strong sense of responsibility in delivering that message.
I'm attracted to artists like Frida Kahlo, because her work was her life, her questions, her outrage, her suffering, her pain. Everything is in her work.
The thing about dancing - what it taught me all those years - is it gives you an amazing sense of discipline in forcing yourself to do things that you know are good for you but you don't really want to do.
When I first moved to New York, I wanted to be a dancer. I danced professionally for years, living a hand-to-mouth existence. I never tapped into nightlife; all I knew was dancers. We went to bed early and got up early and went to free concerts at the Lincoln Center and Shakespeare in the Park.
I wear the Jewish star, but I'm not - I haven't converted to Judaism, and I'm not - I'm not - I'm not Jewish in the conventional sense because the Kaballah is a belief system that predates religion and predates Judaism as an organized religion.
I've always danced and exercised. I can't imagine not doing it. I'll be Martha Graham in my 90s doing contractions on the floor.
I went to the University of Michigan for one year, and fortunately they had a foreign-film cinema, and I discovered it, and I thought I died and went to heaven.
I've never really lived a conventional life, so I think it's quite foolish for me or anyone else to start thinking that I am going to start making conventional choices.
When I left Michigan and I came to New York, that was my goal, to be a professional dancer. And I sort of fell into singing by accident in a way.
Because I was a dancer, I started going to auditions for musical theater, which forced me to sing.
I think a lot of people have a problem with the fact that I've adopted an African child, a child who has a different color skin than I do.
With all the chaos, pain and suffering in the world, the fact that my adoption of a child from who was living in an orphanage, you know, was the number one story for a week in the world. To me, that says more about our inability to focus on the real problems.
I'm a showgirl. After 20 years in show business, I've learned to roll with the punches.
I believe sometimes we aren't always in charge of everything that we do creatively. We submit to things as we're going on our own journey.
I just find the people I want to work with and put it all together, and it's a lot of hard work, and all kinds of catastrophes happen, but I don't really get too much resistance. But when you make a movie, it seems like there's nothing but resistance. It's kind of a miracle that any movie ever gets made.
I like to think I'm a role model for women. But I also don't like to just limit it to women. I like to think I'm a role model for human beings in general.
I'm opening gyms around the world to encourage people to get in shape and feel good about themselves; bringing art through dance to gyms to make my gyms different from other people's.
