I can't just make a song people can dance in a club to... it still has to be real.
Interpretation
Art should be genuine and authentic, not just created for commercial purposes.
Mary J. Blige emphasizes the importance of authenticity in her music, suggesting that while it's important for songs to be enjoyable, they should also reflect real emotions and experiences. This highlights the tension between commercial success and artistic integrity, advocating for art that resonates on a deeper level rather than mere entertainment.
In practice
During a music workshop to inspire creators.
When I was five years old I was molested and just, you know. I remember feeling, literally right before it happened, I just could not believe that this person was going to do this to me. That thing followed me all my life. The shame of thinking my molestation was my fault - it led me to believe I wasn't worth anything.
We are all spirits. We get depressed. But music makes you want to live. I know my music has saved my life.
I don't know. Only God knows where the story ends for me, but I know where the story begins. It's up to us to choose, whether we win or lose and I choose to win.
As a child I always wanted to be a singer. The music my mother played in the house moved me - Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Mahalia Jackson. It was truly spiritual. It made you understand what God was. We are all spirits. We get depressed. But music makes you want to live. I know my music has saved my life.
Really, every woman is an example to me, because as women we go through so much pain. We have to live this perfect life when we are messed up inside. We all go through trials and tribulations.
I've been praying to God to show me how to forgive myself. Because... maybe... that's the thing I've been searching for.
In cinema, the leading player is the director.
Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand.
Finding a photograph is often like picking up a piece from a jigsaw-puzzle box with the cover missing. Thereβs no sense of the whole. Each image is a mysterious part of something not yet revealed.
I spend my days kneeling in the muck of language, feeling around for gooey verbs, nouns, and modifiers that I can squash together to make a blob of a sentence that bears some likeness to reason and sense.
The Taliban's acts of cultural vandalism - the most infamous being the destruction of the giant Bamiyan Buddhas - had a devastating effect on Afghan culture and the artistic scene. The Taliban burned countless films, VCRs, music tapes, books, and paintings. They jailed filmmakers, musicians, painters, and sculptors.
And let me touch those curving claws of yellow ivory; and grasp the tail that like a monstrous asp coils round your heavy velvet paws.
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