It's not just songs and glamour. It's sweat, blood, broken toes, and mistakes... It's life.
Interpretation
Success in the arts requires hard work and perseverance, not just talent or glamour.
Mary J. Blige emphasizes that the journey in the music industry, and life in general, goes beyond the surface of fame and beauty. It is filled with struggles, challenges, and sacrifices that shape an artist's experience and contribute to their authentic expression. The quote serves as a reminder that true accomplishment often involves overcoming adversity and embracing the imperfections along the way.
In practice
This quote can inspire a young artist to keep pushing through tough times in their music career.
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.
Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression.
The notion of directing a film is the invention of critics - the whole eloquence of cinema is achieved in the editing room.
Stories are the most important thing in the world. Without stories, we wouldn't be human beings at all.
Music is always for the listener, but the first listener is always the musician
In the early days, Porter Wagoner would not exactly scold me, but he's say, 'You're writing too many damn verses. You're makin' these songs too damn long.' And I'd say, 'Yeah, but I'm tellin' a story. I have a story to tell.' And he'd say, 'Well, you're not going to get it on the radio.' If I start writing a song, I'm writing it for a reason. People would say that I had to have two verses, and a chorus, and a bridge. I tried to learn that formula.
A primary function of art and thought is to liberate the individual from the tyranny of his culture in the environmental sense and to permit him to stand beyond it in an autonomy of perception and judgment.
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