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.
Writing is the art of repeating oneself without anyone noticing.
Nothing is contrived. At night, the clothes should pour like liquid over the body.
Perhaps things are most beautiful when they are not quite real; when you look upon a scene as an outsider, and come to possess it in its entirety and forever; when you live in the present with the lucidity and feeling of memory; when, for want of connection, the world deepens and becomes art.
Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.
All fiction is a process of imagining: whatever you write, in whatever genre or medium, your task is to make things up convincingly and interestingly and new.
The material of literary talent is words; the material of story talent is life itself.
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