Madonna Ciccone Quotes

People like it when others are gossiping. When you hear a story about someone’s demise or some big faux-pas they made, everyone wants to tune into it, because it’s nice to know that someone else made a mistake. It makes you feel elevated for a moment.

I hate being called a pop star. I hate that.

Catholicism is not a soothing religion. It’s a painful religion. We’re all gluttons for punishment.

I don’t care if you hate me or love me, as long as I make you think.

Sometimes you want to go for a walk and you don’t want to be watched. You just want to be anonymous and blend in. Especially when I travel, I feel that way, because I can’t really go out and see a city the way other people can and I miss out on a lot.

I know I’m not the greatest singer or dancer, but that doesn’t interest me. I’m interested in being provocative and pushing people’s buttons.

Growing up, I didn’t feel cool; I didn’t fit into any crowd.

I want to be like Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, and John Lennon… but I want to stay alive.

With all the chaos, pain and suffering in the world, the fact that my adoption of a child from who was living in an orphanage, you know, was the number one story for a week in the world. To me, that says more about our inability to focus on the real problems.

I live – I live a highly scheduled life. There’s absolutely no time wasted. I’m very focused. And I have a great assistant.

Better to live one year as a tiger, then a hundred as sheep.

If you have children, you know you’re responsible for somebody. You realize you are being imitated; your belief systems and priorities have a direct influence on these children, who are like flowers in a garden.

We like to put people on a pedestal, give them one character trait, and if they step outside of that shrinelike area that we blocked out for them, then we will punish them.

I’m ambitious. But if I weren’t as talented as I am ambitious, I would be a gross monstrosity.

Obviously, I feel a great sense of responsibility being a good parent and raising my children. I don’t take that job very lightly. Who they are, what they become and what they contribute to the world is very important to me.

One of the things that helps me tell a story through music is to create a character. I have to have a muse, whether it’s Frida Kahlo, Martha Graham, Marlene Dietrich, or Pippi Longstocking.

You realise that having a number one record and being loved and adored isn’t the most important thing in the world. But at the same time, I don’t have a problem with it. What I’m trying to say is, I’m not a reluctant pop star.