Adam Levine and I remade the Rolling Stones’ classic Wild Horses, and it is right up my alley, that whole style. It has a style of its own but still stays very true to the classic arrangement, and I love it. – Alicia Keys
Things can be really empty in this world, and I don’t just mean the music world. It can become a very meaningless place if you don’t really understand: ‘who am I? Why am I here? What am I doing?’ To feel fulfilment and have a deeper level of understanding, personally, that is the most important thing. – Alicia Keys
I grew up in the middle of everything. I walked the streets alone, I rode the trains alone, I came home at three in the morning alone; that was what I did. – Alicia Keys
What breaks my heart is suffering of any kind. Too often, our world is divisive and cruel where it needs to be uniting and loving. – Alicia Keys
I love my heritage! I have my mother, who is an Irish-Italian, and my father who is African, so I have the taste buds of an Italian and the spice of an African. – Alicia Keys
I think you are who you are, and your kids will see who you are. So you’d better be a good person, because they are going to see it, and that’s going to shape them. They are going to become you. – Alicia Keys
When I was first learning songs, I’d have a favorite song, and I’d take the chords and twist them around. I’d learn the chords and then play them backward. That was my first experimenting with writing a song. – Alicia Keys
My mixed-race background made me a broad person, able to relate to different cultures. But any woman of colour, even a mixed colour, is seen as black in America. So that’s how I regard myself. – Alicia Keys
I love children and I love family and I love that interaction. Because I had a really close relationship with my mother, I understand that deep powerful love, and it’s so beautiful. To be a mother to a child is the most brilliant gift; it’s gorgeous. – Alicia Keys
I know people who’ve gone to jail. It don’t mean you stop loving them! They deservin’ love just as much in there, and maybe they needin’ it more. – Alicia Keys
When I was younger, studying classical music, I really had to put in the time. Three hours a day is not even nice – you have to put in six. – Alicia Keys
I am able to hang with the hardest, the baddest, the worst, and I’m able to hang with the most proper and be at ease. I’m able to hang with any skin colour, any belief. I just fit in everywhere. – Alicia Keys
I was worried that one day, 40 years from now, I would look back and wouldn’t be able to remember the details of my life, so I’ve written them all down. – Alicia Keys
I’m not ashamed of what I am and that I have curves and that I’m thick. I like my body. – Alicia Keys
When I had nothing else, I had my mother and the piano. And you know what? They were all I needed. – Alicia Keys
I have solid decent people around me, and I believe that is all it is, because you will get destroyed if you have people bringing you down. – Alicia Keys
We have the potential to help people out of poverty, out of disease, out of slavery and out of conflict. Too often, we turn the other way because we think there’s nothing we can do. – Alicia Keys
Music is funny. I shouldn’t even ever talk about music, because you can have all the ideas in your head, and it never goes exactly the way that you think it’s gonna go. – Alicia Keys
I find myself to be truly primal and passionate. Everything I do comes from a primal place. – Alicia Keys
