John Legend Quotes

I think writers are prone to hyperbole sometimes.

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.

I was a busy kid in high school - a little bit of an overachiever, I guess. Prom king was kind of silly, but the rest of the stuff was important to me.

We have a serious problem with incarceration in this country. It's destroying families, it's destroying communities and we're the most incarcerated country in the world, and when you look deeper and look at the reasons we got to this place, we as a society made some choices politically and legislatively, culturally to deal with poverty, deal with mental illness in a certain way and that way usually involves using incarceration.

Soul is about authenticity. Soul is about finding the things in your life that are real and pure.

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.

We all must follow a different path to let our light shine, and that's what makes us so unpredictable and unique.

The best way to fight poverty is to empower people through access to quality education

I keep learning, listening, growing and experimenting.

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.

Love your curves and all your edges All your perfect imperfections

A just society is not one built on fear or repression or vengeance or exclusion, but one built on love. Love for our families. Love for our neighbors. Love for the least among us. Love for those who look different or worship differently. Love for those we don't even know.

The future started yesterday, and we're already late.

We're just ordinary people. We don't know which way to go.

My head’s under water but I’m breathing fine

The biggest weapon is to stay peaceful

If a relationship is going to work, it will require compromise and, even then, it is not always going to end the way you want it to.

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?

I have a structured songwriting process. I start with the music and try to come up with musical ideas, then the melody, then the hook, and the lyrics come last. Some people start with the lyrics first because they know what they want to talk about and they just write a whole bunch of lyrical ideas, but for me the music tells me what to talk about.

We should care about what is going on in the world.

I just want it to be timeless and timely at the same time.

Experience is a great teacher.

Musicians are in-season all the time.

Music business is not for everyone. But if you have it in you, you have that passion, if you have that energy in you that you really want to make something creative and make something that's going to impact the world, then go for it, do it and don't let anybody tell you no.

I want to make a better record than I made the last time. I want to grow. I want to discover new things about myself creatively.

Mass incarceration is a policy that's kind of built up over the last four decades and it's destroyed families and communities, and something we need to change. And it's fallen disproportionally on black and brown communities, especially black communities, and it's kind of a manifestation of structural racism.

​W​e'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.

The struggle for freedom and justice is now.

There are more black men incarcerated today than there were slaves in 1850.

John legend is a nickname that somebody started calling me a while ago and part of it is 'cos I sound like an old man when I sing.

I played classical as a kid.

The best training is to play by ear: trial by fire.

I feel like my job is to make impact, spread love, tell great stories, inspire people, that's what I am going to do.

I was always the front man for what I was doing from when I was 6.

I think it's hard to really write a song that will educate someone because songs are meant to be ... you don't want to be too didactic in a song because it doesn't make for good music. And I think the role of songs can be to inspire people but there needs to education and prose to back that up.

I was the front man of the choir and then when I was 12 and I was the leadsinger of my highschool groups.

In the 1970s, for all the Stevie Wonders, I'm sure there were five artists that were making forgettable music.

To me, as a musician, there aren't any boundaries genre-wise as far as what can you listen to to inspire you.

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.

London is a good fashion city. They're a little more daring. There's the element of the aristocracy, which is always interesting.

I listen to all those kinds of music, from classic soul to hip-hop to Brazilian music to, you know, jazz to indie to alternative. So whatever. I listen to all if it. Classic rock and classic pop, all of that.

I used to work for a management consulting company, so I dressed differently - business casual, probably a lot of things from Banana Republic. My wardrobe now is definitely more expensive, but I always dress for the occasion.

As a nation - and as a world - we need more truth.

As a young black boy, it made me proud to see black leaders that did something amazing and made the world change.

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.

I'm craving more soul, I'm craving more truth, I'm craving more socially - just people that are aware of what's going on in the world.

I only want to be associated with music that is high quality. That's my main criteria.

John Legend is a nickname that some friends started calling me, and it kind of grew into my stage name.

Women are dealing with the same thing: they're dealing with expectations about how they're supposed to look and how they're supposed to interact with men. I think we're all trying to figure it all out, especially when we're teenagers, but I think the key is to listen and empathize with one another.

I like cool jackets - a nice fall or winter coat. You can get a lot of use out of it, and you'll wear it frequently, so it can really set the tone of your uniform for the season.