Madonna Ciccone

No one knows you better than you know yourself. Do the thing you want. Don't wait for someone else

One must dare to show what he wants. You have to go and ask for things rather than wait for them to happen.

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

Trying to be a professional dancer, paying my rent by posing nude for art classes, staring at people staring at me naked. Daring them to think of me as anything but a form they were trying to capture with their pencils and charcoal. I was defiant. Hell-bent on surviving. On making it. But it was hard and it was lonely, and I had to dare myself every day to keep going.

I think that everyone should get married at least once, so you can see what a silly, outdated institution it is.

I want to give a child a life who wouldn't be given a life. I want a child that nobody else wants.

One thing I've learned is that I'm not the owner of my talent; I'm the manager of it.

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.

Not only do we suffer from racism and sexism, but we also suffer from ageism. And that is that once you reach a certain age, you're not allowed to be adventurous, you're not allowed to be sexual and I think that's rather hideous. [...] I mean, is there a rule? Are you just supposed to die when you're 40?

Beauty's where you find it; not just where you bump and grind it.

Do everything you're told. Be a good cheerleader. And never, never say, 'It's not so bad.' Say 'You are almost there!' And say it a lot.

I'm a showgirl. After 20 years in show business, I've learned to roll with the punches.

When I first moved to New York, I wanted to be a dancer. I danced professionally for years, living a hand-to-mouth existence. I never tapped into nightlife; all I knew was dancers. We went to bed early and got up early and went to free concerts at the Lincoln Center and Shakespeare in the Park.

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.

I'm always looking for something new: a new inspiration, a new philosophy, a new way to look at something, new talent.

Of course, my interests and my focus change and become more diverse, more worldly. At the same time, I am interested in the simple basics, which is I love to dance and I love to make people dance.

I'm attracted to artists like Frida Kahlo, because her work was her life, her questions, her outrage, her suffering, her pain. Everything is in her work.

I laugh at myself. I don't take myself completely seriously. I think that's another quality that people have to hold on to... you have to laugh, especially at yourself.

I always acted like a star long before I was one.

I've never really lived a conventional life, so I think it's quite foolish for me or anyone else to start thinking that I am going to start making conventional choices.

I'm tough, ambitious and I know exactly what I want.