Explore Quotes by Youssou N'Dour

In politics, sometimes you have to lie, or you make a promise that you cannot keep.

Travel teaches as much as books.

I look at my people, and I look at those who control them - the political elite. And the sad thing is that the elites are just not interested in the welfare of the people.

I'm a modern Muslim. I pray, and if I have a question, I ask someone who is more educated in the religion than me.

World music is about taking things from different places and bringing them together - which is great.

In the West, you have always associated the Islamic faith 100 percent with Arab culture. This in itself is a fundamentalist attitude and it is mistaken.

Politics is politics; art is art. If you play a political role, you have to stop being an artist.

I want to use my music to deliver a political message and sometimes to denounce, but I don't want to be a politician.

Senegal needs to free itself, to rediscover its democracy.

People need to see that, far from being an obstacle, the world's diversity of languages, religions and traditions is a great treasure, affording us precious opportunities to recognize ourselves in others.

In Africa, there is much confusion.... Before, there was no radio, or other forms of communication.... Now, in Africa ... the government talks, people talk, the police talk, the people don't know anymore. They aren't free.

My music is like a spinning ball. It can turn in one direction, and then it comes back to origins.