Anita Baker Quotes

We don't do drugs, drink or use profanity. Instead we instill morals and values in my boys by raising them with a love of God and a love and respect for themselves and all people. I believe they will have a chance.

- Anita Baker

Completeness? Happiness? These words don't come close to describing my emotions. There truly is nothing I can say to capture what motherhood means to me, particularly given my medical history.

- Anita Baker

Historically, in my generation, all of my heroes and heroines have had issues and problems. We all do.

- Anita Baker

Oh my goodness, they are rocking so many variations of my high-top fade. I mean, Rihanna has taken it to a very angular 21st Century thing. Miss Fantasia has it in a very seductive, you know, up-flip, and it's just lovely, right? Oh, I think it's wonderful.

- Anita Baker

My father worked on assembly lines in Detroit while I was growing up. Every day, I watched him do what he needed to do to support the family. But he told me, 'Life is short. Do what you want to do.'

- Anita Baker

Applause felt like approval, and it became a drug that soothed the pain, but only temporarily.

- Anita Baker

I don't even have voice mail, and people get all out of shape about that. But, you know what, I don't want to transcribe your message; I want to talk to you. And that kind of freaks people out a bit. They go, 'Oh, who has time to talk?' and I'm like, 'Well, I'm gonna make time.'

- Anita Baker

Most artists are notoriously insecure, and I fall into that category.

- Anita Baker

I'm picking and choosing in terms of the stress factor. If it's not fun, I'm not going to do it.

- Anita Baker

If I could be doing anything, I'd be laying on the floor in my birthday suit eating junk food and watching something dumb on TV.

- Anita Baker

If you have your own agenda and your own style and you don't easily conform to what the masses are doing, you're looked upon as being difficult. Whereas, I think of it as just being an individual.

- Anita Baker

Chris Brown is brilliant. That cat is crazy brilliant, and I wish him the best.

- Anita Baker

As soon as you get off stage, that's the most dangerous time for a singer to kiss people because your vocal chords are receptive to any kind of germ.

- Anita Baker

I have as many pictures of my vocal cords as I do of my children. I have a great ear, nose and throat doctor, and we look at them - if there's some redness, maybe I'll take a little time off.

- Anita Baker

I made numerous attempts to find a way to do it all, to be a creative singer, songwriter, producer, and to be the mother, daughter, sister, lover, wife. And the thing about music is, with me, that she's a harsh mistress. She does not come to me in the midst of stress.

- Anita Baker

I would say that my peak was making my first million at the ripe age of 29, after the first album.

- Anita Baker

Long tresses down to the floor can be beautiful, if you have that, but learn to love what you have.

- Anita Baker

Typically, the theme of my albums, if there is a theme, is, 'How does it feel?' And that always leads to love songs. It just does.

- Anita Baker

Time has nothing to do with the gifts that the gods give you; it's what you do.

- Anita Baker

I don't let people use me. That's why I like a small number of people in my life. The more people in my life, the more complex it becomes, so I just try to keep it at a minimum.

- Anita Baker

I used to sing at funeral homes for families that didn't have a vocalist. I didn't get paid. I needed to sing.

- Anita Baker

I love radio, but it's a very limited thing today. Everything has to be edited down to 3:59, and too bad if I didn't make my statement in three minutes and 59 seconds. Everybody's song has to make its point so quickly.

- Anita Baker

I'm used to getting up at 7, getting breakfast, getting the kids off to school, and doing the mommy thing and the wife thing and the daughter thing.

- Anita Baker

When you're away for a long time, tastes change, fans move on. You hate to think about it, but it's an ugly fact of life.

- Anita Baker

You leave home to seek your fortune and, when you get it, you go home and share it with your family.

- Anita Baker

It's impossible to write and produce a record when your parents are dying. I really tried, I really, really tried, but it just wouldn't come.

- Anita Baker

I don't think being black has held me back at all. Being black makes you strong.

- Anita Baker

I would make far more money if every song were my own, but I don't write to fill up the album with my songs.

- Anita Baker

I'd love to be the political voice of my generation, but that's not my gift.

- Anita Baker

I think there's no sacrifice too great for family, whether it's career, singing, whatever.

- Anita Baker