You see all these things that make you feel desperate or sad, but you realize changes can be made, and it doesn't take a lot of money on our part to make a change in people's lives.
We're so used to having everything we want at our fingertips so I think that when things get tough it's difficult for people to persist through that.
You can always find a stray negative comment on the Internet. It's like everybody loves to put negative comments on the Internet under the cloak of anonymity.
You learn so much from taking chances, whether they work out or not. Either way, you can grow from the experience and become stronger and smarter.
Well, I was always a bit of a political junkie. Even as a kid I would read biographies of presidents and of civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King and Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington.
Witnessing the extreme poverty in remote parts of Affrica can make you feel sad and powerless until you realize how little it takes to change these people's lives fundamentally in sustainable ways.
When I write, I don't really focus on duets or anything like that, or whether I'm going to feature this or that rapper. I just focus on just making a great song and figure out the rest later.
The main focus for me is not trying to find duet partners. It's about just making great songs. I want most of my album to be in my voice, because it's my point of view.
There's so much music out there, and so many different styles that I've been influenced by, so each album reflects some of that knowledge or influence that I've had.
Some people, you know, should just go to college and do what they do and have a great job and not worry about trying to be famous as a singer. It's not for everyone.
My mother, I want her to like my music, but she's not exactly my target audience. So I care more about the fans in general, just making sure they enjoy what I do.
That's the evergreen nature of a great song. They can be resurrected. They can be covered. They can find new relevance due to changing circumstances in history.
No matter how big or successful and famous you become, if you do that, that's the most fulfilling thing, is making music that you love and that you're proud of.
Sometimes I just think people are haters. And if they're haters, you can listen to what they have to say but you have to take it with a grain of salt.
When we see people that are impoverished and people who are dealt an unfair hand, then if we have the power to help them, we should try to do that.
![Music wasn't forced on me [in my childhood]. It was something I wanted to do. And ever since, I've never stopped, I've never stopped playing music.](https://quotes.thefamouspeople.com/images/quotes/john-legend-139569.jpg)
Music wasn't forced on me [in my childhood]. It was something I wanted to do. And ever since, I've never stopped, I've never stopped playing music.
Why wouldn't I help? What good reason do I have as a human being with power and a sense of empathy and morality, why wouldn't I do something?
My family is very musical, I was surrounded by it. And from four years old I was the one that asked my mother could I take piano lessons.
Sometimes there's that perfect moment when the crowd, the music, the energy of the room come together in a way that brings me to tears.
My first big break came with Lauryn Hill on a track called Everything is Everything, I played piano on that track way back in 1998.
People tell me all the time that my songs help them express things to loved ones that they may not be able to say themselves.
The weirdest thing about Hillary Clinton's email 'scandal' is finding out some of our senators still don't use email.
The fun part about collaborating is that you naturally just bounce off each other's energy and learn off each other.
We all must follow a different path to let our light shine, and that's what makes us so unpredictable and unique.
To me, as a musician, there aren't any boundaries genre-wise as far as what can you listen to to inspire you.
In terms of the technology I use the most, it's probably a tie between my Blackberry and my MacBook Pro laptop. That's how I communicate with the rest of the world and how I handle all the business I have to handle.
I want you to live the best life you can. You can be world-changers. .. Pursue this life of love with focus and passion and ambition and courage. Give it your all. And that will be your path to true success.
I want to move people, stir something within them that makes them feel. That's what a movie should do and an actor should do, make you feel something. I think that's why people love films so much.
Music business is hard. It's very difficult. And it's not for everyone. Even if you can sing or even if you can write a song, it takes a lot of determination, it takes some kind of thick skin.
It's not enough to say we need to love each other, you have to go behind that and say we need to change these policies, we need to fight, we need to protest, we need to agitate for change.
