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.

Madonna Ciccone

Age You World

Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another.

Whose Who T

Be strong, believe in freedom and in God, love yourself, understand your sexuality, have a sense of humor, masturbate, don't judge people by their religion, color or sexual habits, love life and your family.

Madonna Ciccone

Religion Love Life

I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.

Madonna Ciccone

Work Men Art

I stand for freedom of expression, doing what you believe in, and going after your dreams.

Madonna Ciccone

Freedom Dreams Your Dreams

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

Madonna Ciccone

Age Thing Thin

When I'm hungry, I eat. When I'm thirsty, I drink. When I feel like saying something, I say it.

Madonna Ciccone

Yin UN Thirsty

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.

Madonna Ciccone

Great Us Tons

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

Madonna Ciccone

Art Want Tin

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.

Madonna Ciccone

Age You World

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

Madonna Ciccone

Want Us Tough

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

Madonna Ciccone

Cool Wing Win

I go to Malawi twice a year. It's where two of my children were adopted from, and I have a lot of projects there that I go and check up on and children who I look after. It's sort of a commitment that I've made to this country and the hundreds of thousands of children there who have been orphaned by AIDS.

Madonna Ciccone

Men Year Who

I like to change. A new lamp, a piece of art, can transform a room.

Madonna Ciccone

Change Art Transform

I'm guilty of eating Magnum bars before I go to sleep at night.

Madonna Ciccone

Tin T Sleep

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

Madonna Ciccone

Religion Men UN

I didn't have many friends; I might not have had any friends. But it all turned out good in the end, because when you aren't popular and you don't have a social life, it gives you more time to focus on your future.

Madonna Ciccone

Time Life Good

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.

Madonna Ciccone

Great Good World

I think my biggest flaw is my insecurity. I'm terribly insecure. I'm plagued with insecurities 24/7.

Madonna Ciccone

Wit Tie Think

I really saw myself as the quintessential Cinderella. I think that's when I really thought about how I wanted to do something else and get away from all that.

Madonna Ciccone

Way Wanted Want

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.

Madonna Ciccone

Life Art Vent

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

Madonna Ciccone

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

Madonna Ciccone

I wouldn't live in Chicago cause it's too conservative, aside for the fact that Oprah Winfrey lives there.

Madonna Ciccone

When I went to Africa, I was reduced to floods of tears every day.

Madonna Ciccone

I believe that we are at a very low level of consciousness, and we do not know how to treat each other as human beings. We are caught up in our own lives, our own needs, our own ego gratification. I feel a strong sense of responsibility in delivering that message.

Madonna Ciccone

I just find the people I want to work with and put it all together, and it's a lot of hard work, and all kinds of catastrophes happen, but I don't really get too much resistance. But when you make a movie, it seems like there's nothing but resistance. It's kind of a miracle that any movie ever gets made.

Madonna Ciccone

I am the result of the good choices I've made and the bad choices.

Madonna Ciccone

I refuse to act the way someone expects me to.

Madonna Ciccone

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

Madonna Ciccone

My father was very strong. I don't agree with a lot of the ways he brought me up. I don't agree with a lot of his values, but he did have a lot of integrity, and if he told us not to do something, he didn't do it either.

Madonna Ciccone

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.

Madonna Ciccone

I always felt like I was a freak when I was growing up and that there was something wrong with me because I couldn't fit in anywhere.

Madonna Ciccone

In England especially, I've found that if you bring up King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson at a dinner party or a social gathering, it's like throwing a Molotov cocktail into the room.

Madonna Ciccone

I was named after my mother. And I guess when I started making records, Madonna Ciccone seemed too long and complicated, and I just got stuck with Madonna.

Madonna Ciccone

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

Madonna Ciccone

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

Madonna Ciccone

Imagine if someone like John Lennon or Bob Marley, Sid Vicious, Picasso, whomever, were doing their work, and some corporation, some CEO, some branding entity was saying to you, 'Well, you can do that, but you've got to remove this aspect of your work.' There would no longer be that purity anymore.

Madonna Ciccone

I know there's more to life than making lots of money and being successful and even getting married and having a family.

Madonna Ciccone

I think the biggest reason I was able to express myself and not be intimidated was by not having a mother. For example, mothers teach you manners. And I absolutely did not learn any of those rules and regulations.

Madonna Ciccone

I'm opening gyms around the world to encourage people to get in shape and feel good about themselves; bringing art through dance to gyms to make my gyms different from other people's.

Madonna Ciccone

I grew up in a high school where it was very conservative, and I felt like people disapproved of me, and I felt like an outsider.

Madonna Ciccone

I like to think I'm a role model for women. But I also don't like to just limit it to women. I like to think I'm a role model for human beings in general.

Madonna Ciccone

I sometimes think I was born to live up to my name. How could I be anything else but what I am having been named Madonna? I would either have ended up a nun or this.

Madonna Ciccone

I suppose I sometimes used to act like I wasn't a human being... Sometimes I look back at myself and remember things I used to say, or my hairstyle, and I cringe.

Madonna Ciccone

I always thought I should be treated like a star.

Madonna Ciccone

When I first came to New York I was a dancer, and a French record label offered me a recording contract and I had to go to Paris to do it. So I went there and that's how I really got into the music business. But I didn't like what I was doing when I got there, so I left, and I never did a record there.

Madonna Ciccone

I think in the end, when you're famous, people like to narrow you down to a few personality traits. I think I've just become this ambitious, say-whatever's-on-her-mind, intimidating person. And that's part of my personality, but it's certainly not anywhere near the whole thing.

Madonna Ciccone

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.

Madonna Ciccone

I was more of a dancing kid than a singing kid. I mean, I sang in school choirs and I sang in school musicals, but I was much more interested in dancing than singing.

Madonna Ciccone

My physical transformations - like changing my hair - are usually a reflection of what's inspiring me at the moment.

Madonna Ciccone