Miguel Quotations

I grew up in Los Angeles when the racial tensions between blacks and Mexicans were very high. Gang violence was very prevalent.

Historically, black music has influenced other cultures and other genres and created other genres.

One of the most telling things about a person is how they say hello, handshakes.

I feel like when you are really appreciative, it makes it easier to have a better outlook and perspective of life in general.

Art is based on emotion, but being macho is based on ego; the wall protecting that emotion.

Interestingly, I matured as a musician and as an artist before I matured as a man. What I mean by that is, I was ready to be completely vulnerable and honest with myself and unapologetic when it comes to how I express myself in my medium. But I wasn't as secure in doing that when it came to just being myself.

Some of us are only going to show our emotions while we're actually vulnerable. But that's what makes us human.

At the end of the day, as a grown man, I don't really care what the sexuality of the next man is.

I think my style as far as vocal delivery and even down to the pronunciation of certain words is so deliberate.

When I'm a part of someone else's creative process, it's all about facilitating their ideas and hopefully bringing their perspective and making it a part of a song.

I can write hundreds of songs on simple power chords.

I believe dreams represent the purest form of fantasy we unleash through our subconscious. They represent the truest freedom we can experience. Totally unrepressed and totally creative.

I'm a nice guy, but I like to get into trouble.

You know, people aren't always the most open-minded.

For me, the creative process for me always starts in a personal place. I step away from my iPod or any records or CDs.

I have this propensity to just come out and say things. That's how I am in real life.

I think that the best part of music is when it comes from a real place and has an ability to kind of connect on a much larger scale. It no longer is a personal thing, it becomes everyone else's thing as well.

I think your conversations are indicative of your tastes - even your diction.

To its credit, hip-hop is my favorite genre, to this day, and it's hard not to be influenced by the culture and by the movement of it and by the soul of it.

I want everyone to express themselves in a unique way.

Travel aesthetics should be just as comfortable and practical as they are fashionable.

Twitter is definitely not the place to handle business per se.

Man, I grew up like everybody else. Middle-low income family. My parents got divorced like most of the rest of the country.

I fell in love with funk music through my father - Funkadelic - as well as soul and classical early on.

I think the illest thing about Wiz Khalifa is how true to himself he's always been, and I miss that from artists. Nothing about what he does ever felt like he was reaching to be something that he wasn't.

I think it's natural for an artist to explore as they evolve.

I think there's always been progressive R&B music.

My sound is definitely what I like to call 'e-clectric.'

A lot of people forget that R&B put hip-hop on, R&B put rock on.

It was important for me to remind people that there's no formula... there's no boundary to R&B music.

I've honestly never worked with Beyonce. It would be awesome, though; I would love that.

I'm really excited to put music out that is a clear projection of my lifestyle.

I mean, there's plenty of artists who are making R&B music, but because of their ethnicity, it's considered something else.

If you're interested in any artist, go see them live. I always say that you should go see an artist live. That's an experience that only you and the people in the room can say that they have.

I don't think I live the lifestyle that's expected of a quote unquote R&B artist. I'm just not that dude.

I feel like R&B as a genre has become a caricature of itself.

I don't think I live the lifestyle that's expected of a quote unquote R&B artist. I'm just not that dude.

I could speak Spanish fluently growing up, but I'm so out of practice, and I have such a tremendous respect for songwriting in the Spanish language.

That is why every brother and sister will react differently according to how they learn to defend themselves and adapt to different circumstances. When our parents are constantly fighting, when there is disharmony, disrespect, and lies, we learn the emotional way of being like them.

I just think that Jack White is the consummate artist - an artist's artist. I'm a huge fan.

I think at any point, as an artist, whatever the medium - just having an audience means the world.

I mean, there's plenty of artists who are making R&B music, but because of their ethnicity, it's considered something else.

I associate creativity with independent music.

When I was coming up, I just wanted to play baseball and I'm doing what I love to do most. How can I feel pressure doing what I love to do?

I feel that as artists - whatever your medium is - I feel that we're watching what goes on around us and we take what we don't see, or we don't hear, or we don't feel and we do something that speaks of it; more about it, for it, or against it - whatever our perspective is - that's what our job is.

Which not peace for the man who is forced to go to war, for he will find his peace. But wish peace for the man who goes to war willingly, for he will never find his peace.

'SNL' is probably one of the premiere outlets that a musician can perform on that isn't obviously a music outlet.

I feel like R&B as a genre has become a caricature of itself.

If you look at any religious description of hell, it is the same as human society, the way we dream. Hell is a place of suffering, a place of fear, a place of war and violence, a place of judgment and no justice, a place of punishment that never ends.

The extremes of who I'd love to be onstage are David Bowie, Prince, and, I don't know, Bjork.

PERSONAL IMPORTANCE or taking things personally, is an expression of SELFISHNESS because we make the assumption that everything is about ME!! NOTHING PEOPLE DO IS BECAUSE OF YOU!! IT'S BECAUSE OF THEMSELVES!!

What I will say is that Naz and I are not together just because we like to hang out. The purpose is finding someone that you can spend the rest of your life with, for me anyways.

The manifestation of the disease of fear is anger, hate, sadness, envy, and hypocrisy; the result of the disease is all the emotions that make humans suffer.

A lot of people forget that R&B put hip-hop on, R&B put rock on.

They are living in the moment. They are not ashamed of the past; they are not worried about the future. Little children express what they feel, and they are not afraid to love.

It doesn’t matter how much you love someone, you are never going to be what that person wants you to be.

Goat screaming videos are hilarious.

The one who has the little need is the one who controls the whole relationship. You can see this dynamic so clearly because usually in every relationship there is one who loves the most and the other who doesn’t love, who only takes advantage of the one who gives his or her heart. You can see the way they manipulate each other, their actions and reactions, and they are just like the provider and the drug addict.

If you take your happiness and put it in someone’s hands, sooner or later, she is going to break it. If you give your happiness to someone else, she can always take it away. Then if happiness can only come from inside of you and is the result of your love, you are responsible for your happiness.

Just as eunuchs will never know aesthetics as applied to the selection of beautiful women, so neither will pure rationalists ever know ethics, nor will they ever succeed in defining happiness, for happiness is a thing that is lived and felt, not a thing that is reasoned or defined.

There is no recollection which time does not put an end to, and no pain which death does not remove.

You can't take yourself too seriously. But always have conviction.

You only know that you’re in love when you suffer.

I have learned that you're only relevant to someone if you're beneficial to them somehow/some way

The Master lives within everyone. When you give food to the one who is starving, when you give water to the one who is thirsty, when you cover the one who is cold, you give your love to the Master.