-
I was inspired to create 'My Life' so I could finally share a personal part of my life beyond my music.
-
I used to think I was ugly. I thought I looked like a camel. A person who doesn't love themselves, they will see anything that pops up on their face. I've seen squirrels, I've seen a bird, and I've seen all kinds of animals on my face. But that is the result of self-hate. I've learned to say: 'You know what? I am a beautiful black woman'.
-
If I'm going to be the best in what I do, I have to study what I'm doing, I have to see what I'm doing. I have to see it, I have to hear it. I'm just starting to appreciate myself - not starting, but appreciating myself in a way where I can look at myself back in a movie or listen to myself as much as I do now.
-
If you're not confident in yourself, you're going to waver. I've wavered, and I've lost.
-
Two hurt people can not help each other. They can not.
-
You can hate me. You can go out there and say anything you want about me, But you will love me later because I told you the truth.
-
You know a lot, but you don't know everything.
-
I grew up watching MTV, when Journey was huge, when Pat Benatar had 'Love Is a Battlefield,' and my friends and I used to cut school to watch this woman in the video. We loved Pat Benatar.
-
I'm a singer who thinks like a rapper.
-
People know what they see but they don't know what's happening inside. If you want to know who you are and how you feel about yourself, take a look at your environment.
-
When someone comes up to me and says, 'Mary, you helped save my marriage', or, 'Mary, you helped me get out of this abusive relationship', I'm in it, really in their lives. And I'm so passionate about my feelings, but also about showing people the way through theirs.
-
Everything is scary if you look at it. So you just got to live.
-
Don't give up, be positive and if you know someone who knows someone at a record company don't stop beating down their door till you get heard. Don't ever say it'll never happen or it'll never happen.
-
I just love food, period.
-
Sometimes I frown and I don't realise it.
-
I don't have any health problems, but to keep your health improves your quality of life.
-
It was only for two years, and I jumped from family to family. It's very scary.
-
From being a little girl in the projects, going through all of the mess that I was going through, to ending up at the Inauguration for the first African-American president, I'm speechless right now because I never thought I'd - I never ever - I couldn't even see that far. Even when I ended up in the music business, I couldn't see that.
-
When I was a child I didn't care about getting an education, and I didn't finish high school.
-
I've been a tomboy my whole life. But then you get older, you get married, you soften up.
-
The music business is not a good place for people who don't know things.
-
I barely have time for my own children. To adopt more children and not have time for them, that would be poor parenting on my part.
-
My main exercise is cardio. The treadmill is fine, but running outdoors gives me the best results. I try to log 6 to 8 miles a week. I could be in the worst mood, but when I do my cardio, I feel much, much better.
-
I believe this generation should know their history and they should know that the struggle's not over yet.