Obviously, I feel a great sense of responsibility being a good parent and raising my children. I don't take that job very lightly. Who they are, what they become and what they contribute to the world is very important to me.
— Madonna Ciccone
When you're 25, it's a little bit easier to be daring, especially if you are a pop star, because eccentric behavior is expected from you.
I know I'm not the greatest singer or dancer, but that doesn't interest me. I'm interested in being provocative and pushing people's buttons.
When I'm hungry, I eat. When I'm thirsty, I drink. When I feel like saying something, I say it.
I don't like rooms you never use or that are wasted space but I also like a sparseness and a cleanness.
I really saw myself as the quintessential Cinderella. I think that's when I really thought about how I wanted to do something else and get away from all that.
I sometimes think I was born to live up to my name. How could I be anything else but what I am having been named Madonna? I would either have ended up a nun or this.
Part of the reason I sort of shot out like a cannon out of Michigan and left home at such an early age is because I had to feel independent.
Sometimes you want to go for a walk and you don't want to be watched. You just want to be anonymous and blend in. Especially when I travel, I feel that way, because I can't really go out and see a city the way other people can and I miss out on a lot.
I have the same goal I've had ever since I was a girl: I want to rule the world.
I think my biggest flaw is my insecurity. I'm terribly insecure. I'm plagued with insecurities 24/7.
When I first came to New York I was a dancer, and a French record label offered me a recording contract and I had to go to Paris to do it. So I went there and that's how I really got into the music business. But I didn't like what I was doing when I got there, so I left, and I never did a record there.
Things were a lot simpler in Detroit. I didn't care about anything but boyfriends.
I think in the end, when you're famous, people like to narrow you down to a few personality traits. I think I've just become this ambitious, say-whatever's-on-her-mind, intimidating person. And that's part of my personality, but it's certainly not anywhere near the whole thing.
I go to Malawi twice a year. It's where two of my children were adopted from, and I have a lot of projects there that I go and check up on and children who I look after. It's sort of a commitment that I've made to this country and the hundreds of thousands of children there who have been orphaned by AIDS.
Catholicism is not a soothing religion. It's a painful religion. We're all gluttons for punishment.
I'm not interested in being Wonder Woman in the delivery room. Give me drugs.
I'm encouraging other people, whether they're professionals or not, to use their creativity to express themselves, to get a conversation going, to get the party started, really.
I didn't have many friends; I might not have had any friends. But it all turned out good in the end, because when you aren't popular and you don't have a social life, it gives you more time to focus on your future.
I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.
I'm tough, ambitious, and I know exactly what I want.
As an artist myself, I know what it's like to put your heart and soul into something. You can feel the presence of another person.
I think the biggest reason I was able to express myself and not be intimidated was by not having a mother. For example, mothers teach you manners. And I absolutely did not learn any of those rules and regulations.
On the one hand, the idea of marriage and the sort of traditional family life repulses me. But on the other hand, I long for it, you know what I mean? I'm constantly in conflict with things. And it is because of my past and my upbringing and the journey that I've been on.
I grew up in a high school where it was very conservative, and I felt like people disapproved of me, and I felt like an outsider.
I hate being called a pop star. I hate that.
Be strong, believe in freedom and in God, love yourself, understand your sexuality, have a sense of humor, masturbate, don't judge people by their religion, color or sexual habits, love life and your family.
I wouldn't live in Chicago cause it's too conservative, aside for the fact that Oprah Winfrey lives there.
Everybody in our family studied a musical instrument. My father was really big on that. Somehow I only took a year or two of piano lessons and I convinced my father to let me take dancing lessons.
But I love the idea - whether it's in my work or where I live - exploring new frontier, and I like putting myself in strange places and trying to survive and figure things out and gather up an infrastructure. I like knowing that I could figure out a way to live anywhere.
I guess some people are brilliant enough to be brilliant on their own and never doubt anything and come up with fabulous things. But I think it's good to get into arguments with people and have them say, 'That sucks' or 'You're crazy' or 'That's cheesy' or 'What do you think of this?'
If any of you have seen my shows, you know that I don't skimp on them and the same is true for the gym. We spend what it takes to make a globally first-class gym.
If I was a girl again, I would like to be like my fans, I would like to be like Madonna.
I stand for freedom of expression, doing what you believe in, and going after your dreams.
I have a funny relationship with religion. I'm a big believer in ritualistic behavior as long as it doesn't hurt anybody. But I'm not a big fan of rules. And yet, we cannot live in a world without order.
If I can't be daring in my work or the way I live my life, then I don't really see the point of being on this planet.
I think that everyone should get married at least once, so you can see what a silly, outdated institution it is.
I like to change. A new lamp, a piece of art, can transform a room.
I get strength from my art - all the paintings I own are powerful.
I want to be like Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, and John Lennon... but I want to stay alive.
I am the result of the good choices I've made and the bad choices.
I don't go to the sale rack. But I wouldn't say I am decadent in my spending. I am careful.
I was more of a dancing kid than a singing kid. I mean, I sang in school choirs and I sang in school musicals, but I was much more interested in dancing than singing.
I'm ambitious. But if I weren't as talented as I am ambitious, I would be a gross monstrosity.
I have my work and my faith... If that's boring to some people, I can't tell you how much I don't care.
People hear the soul, black influence in my voice. I grew up listening to CKLW and all the black stations like WLBS.
In this business, my business, I get to meet all kinds of incredible people, fascinating people, glamorous people and sexy people and highly intellectual people. And you meet them and you go 'interesting, interesting, interesting'. They're interesting, but not very many people stop you in your tracks.
I always felt like I was a freak when I was growing up and that there was something wrong with me because I couldn't fit in anywhere.
A lot of places I go are dangerous, like Tel Aviv or Rio, but that never stops me from going there and putting on a show. I have good security. I don't worry about that.
My father was very strong. I don't agree with a lot of the ways he brought me up. I don't agree with a lot of his values, but he did have a lot of integrity, and if he told us not to do something, he didn't do it either.
