Success is about dedication. You may not be where you want to be or do what you want to do when you're on the journey. But you've got to be willing to have vision and foresight that leads you to an incredible end.
Usher
In life, you have to go through something to get to something. From that, the inspiration comes having something of substance to talk about; otherwise you're just considered to be fluff.
In time we grow older, we grow wiser, we grow smarter, and we're better. And I feel like I'm becoming more seasoned, although I don't have my salt-and-pepper hair.
Strivers achieve what dreamers believe.
I get to see life through rose-colored glasses a lot of the time.
I'm a flamboyant type of guy, a cooler version of Liberace.
I like a woman who takes care of herself - it says something about the way she'll care for me.
My idea of artistry has always been 'try everything until you find out what works.'
I like to release music the way I feel it, as opposed to having a date. The idea of dates, boxes, categories are very scary for me.
Appearance is something you should definitely consider when you're going out. Have your girlfriend clip your nails or something like that.
My music is about where I am at the time. In 'Raymond vs. Raymond,' I was going through a lot of things, and it came out in my music. My marriage fell apart, and I was suddenly a single father.
Breaking up is a natural evolution when you try to figure out what you want in life. If you're with an individual who isn't moving in the same direction and at the same rate that you are, it ain't going to work.
Down time is not the name of the game.
You can't fake being a star. But you can also become a great personality.
I've learnt that you are who you are, and in the end, if you don't believe it, then no one will.
I like to wear things that are daring but also not seem too avant-garde.
I'm a go-hard type. It's in my DNA. I physically prepare my body as if I'm a trained athlete. After the shows, I sit in an ice tub and do a hot dip, cold dip, and sometimes I sit in a hyperbaric chamber to rejuvenate my energy.
As a kid, looking at Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, New Edition, the Temptations, Motown, people who I felt were huge artists, they made me wanna do something.
I'm more for the style than the brand. I don't go brand shopping; I go detail shopping.
My philosophy is I'm raising future adults, not children.
Somebody has to look out for and protect our kids, and I feel blessed to be a blessing to someone else.
I still believe in love. I believe in marriage.
These days, I try to eat for my blood type when I'm not eating for the fat kid inside me.
The beauty about living in Atlanta is that there aren't too many paparazzi here; you can just relax. And that really works for me and my children.
If you get lazy when you're onstage, it shows.
Music is not free to make. Studios are going under because people now work at laptops. Quantity over quality is what begins to happen; the idea of what quality is has changed.
Sleeping is forbidden at the age of 22. It's all work and no play.
The best present a man can give a woman is his undivided attention.
When I was a kid, we got in a cipher and battled each other lyrically. We told jokes and made the hottest dance moves.
I never hated my father. I would have named my child Usher regardless. I never hated myself because I carried his name, because I made it mean what I wanted it to mean.
Every time you come out with an album or a song, you want to feel like you're growing a bit in what you are and giving people something that they can feel.
The only way you know what it is to be a boxer is to be one.
You couldn't find a more stylized boxer than Sugar Ray Leonard.
I went through a soul-searching period. I went to a place that was a little bit more reflective and dark. I began to look at who I am, who I was, where I come from, what my culture is, and who I am as an African-American person in America.
I've been working so hard, I'm about to have a Mariah Carey.
It isn't hard to be in a relationship because I've always loved to be in a relationship, and I love to be in love.
Artistic development made me who I am. Somebody took the time to help me find what it is that works for me as an entertainer and who I am as a music maker.
The girls want to see the rips on your stomach - they like that.
Someday, I'd like to create a fashionable dance shoe.
I guess we're all kinda searching for a connection with something that's relevant to our past and speaks to who we are, and maybe helps us make a connection to what we are, and where we come from.
I'd like to do something with Michael Buble, Harry Connick Jr., Tim McGraw, Justin Timberlake, and Gwen Stefani.
Marketing is more important than it has ever been. But I'm trying to tear the layers back and make it not so contrived. I think people just want entertainment.
When I was 14 years old, I was talking about much more mature things because of the writers that I had at the time. My first album was tied into what the culture was at that moment, which was Jodeci, Al B. Sure, Puff, The Hitmen. I reaped the benefits of being part of Bad Boy's movement. That was my introduction.
I learned how music works dealing with Jermaine Dupri, and I learned how image works dealing with Puff Daddy.
I'm not a morning person, but I've become one as the result of having kids. The morning is my private time to spend with my boys.
I want England to understand - the rest of the world to understand - what is going on in America. And I want America to understand what is going on in the rest of the world.
Sometimes, when I'm scolding the kids, I sound just like my mom. I'm like, 'How did Jonetta get in here?'
I create from a place of passion. It's like a pregnancy, where you create from a place of passion, and then it grows, and then before you know it, you want to push that baby out.
