If you get lazy when you're onstage, it shows.
— Usher
In life, you have to go through something to get to something. From that, the inspiration comes having something of substance to talk about; otherwise you're just considered to be fluff.
Someday, I'd like to create a fashionable dance shoe.
I still believe in love. I believe in marriage.
When I was 14 years old, I was talking about much more mature things because of the writers that I had at the time. My first album was tied into what the culture was at that moment, which was Jodeci, Al B. Sure, Puff, The Hitmen. I reaped the benefits of being part of Bad Boy's movement. That was my introduction.
My idea of artistry has always been 'try everything until you find out what works.'
As a kid, looking at Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, New Edition, the Temptations, Motown, people who I felt were huge artists, they made me wanna do something.
These days, I try to eat for my blood type when I'm not eating for the fat kid inside me.
I get to see life through rose-colored glasses a lot of the time.
I've learnt that you are who you are, and in the end, if you don't believe it, then no one will.
I'd like to do something with Michael Buble, Harry Connick Jr., Tim McGraw, Justin Timberlake, and Gwen Stefani.
You can't fake being a star. But you can also become a great personality.
I like a woman who takes care of herself - it says something about the way she'll care for me.
Sleeping is forbidden at the age of 22. It's all work and no play.
Somebody has to look out for and protect our kids, and I feel blessed to be a blessing to someone else.
I've been working so hard, I'm about to have a Mariah Carey.
I'm a go-hard type. It's in my DNA. I physically prepare my body as if I'm a trained athlete. After the shows, I sit in an ice tub and do a hot dip, cold dip, and sometimes I sit in a hyperbaric chamber to rejuvenate my energy.
Artistic development made me who I am. Somebody took the time to help me find what it is that works for me as an entertainer and who I am as a music maker.
I'm more for the style than the brand. I don't go brand shopping; I go detail shopping.
My music is about where I am at the time. In 'Raymond vs. Raymond,' I was going through a lot of things, and it came out in my music. My marriage fell apart, and I was suddenly a single father.
Every time you come out with an album or a song, you want to feel like you're growing a bit in what you are and giving people something that they can feel.
I like to release music the way I feel it, as opposed to having a date. The idea of dates, boxes, categories are very scary for me.
I guess we're all kinda searching for a connection with something that's relevant to our past and speaks to who we are, and maybe helps us make a connection to what we are, and where we come from.
I'm not a morning person, but I've become one as the result of having kids. The morning is my private time to spend with my boys.
The beauty about living in Atlanta is that there aren't too many paparazzi here; you can just relax. And that really works for me and my children.
It isn't hard to be in a relationship because I've always loved to be in a relationship, and I love to be in love.
In time we grow older, we grow wiser, we grow smarter, and we're better. And I feel like I'm becoming more seasoned, although I don't have my salt-and-pepper hair.
My philosophy is I'm raising future adults, not children.
The best present a man can give a woman is his undivided attention.
I learned how music works dealing with Jermaine Dupri, and I learned how image works dealing with Puff Daddy.
Down time is not the name of the game.
Breaking up is a natural evolution when you try to figure out what you want in life. If you're with an individual who isn't moving in the same direction and at the same rate that you are, it ain't going to work.
Music is not free to make. Studios are going under because people now work at laptops. Quantity over quality is what begins to happen; the idea of what quality is has changed.
The only way you know what it is to be a boxer is to be one.
I like to wear things that are daring but also not seem too avant-garde.
Sometimes, when I'm scolding the kids, I sound just like my mom. I'm like, 'How did Jonetta get in here?'
I create from a place of passion. It's like a pregnancy, where you create from a place of passion, and then it grows, and then before you know it, you want to push that baby out.
I went through a soul-searching period. I went to a place that was a little bit more reflective and dark. I began to look at who I am, who I was, where I come from, what my culture is, and who I am as an African-American person in America.
When I was a kid, we got in a cipher and battled each other lyrically. We told jokes and made the hottest dance moves.
Marketing is more important than it has ever been. But I'm trying to tear the layers back and make it not so contrived. I think people just want entertainment.
Success is about dedication. You may not be where you want to be or do what you want to do when you're on the journey. But you've got to be willing to have vision and foresight that leads you to an incredible end.
You couldn't find a more stylized boxer than Sugar Ray Leonard.
I want England to understand - the rest of the world to understand - what is going on in America. And I want America to understand what is going on in the rest of the world.
I never hated my father. I would have named my child Usher regardless. I never hated myself because I carried his name, because I made it mean what I wanted it to mean.
Strivers achieve what dreamers believe.
I'm a flamboyant type of guy, a cooler version of Liberace.
The girls want to see the rips on your stomach - they like that.
Appearance is something you should definitely consider when you're going out. Have your girlfriend clip your nails or something like that.
