Top 100 John Legend Quotes
#1. 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.
John Legend
#2. 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.
John Legend
#3. 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.
John Legend
#4. I don't love the idea of three superstars coming together to form a dream team, I'd rather teams are built more organically, just as a fan it's more interesting to see.
John Legend
#5. I feel like spirituality definitely comes through in my music, but I don't make any specific efforts to make it that way.
John Legend
#6. I don't think I'm craving any more fame. But success and being recognized for making great work all around the world, I think it's a great thing.
John Legend
#7. I'm pretty adventurous with food, so I'm not afraid to try anything.
John Legend
#8. I do believe that part of us ending racism is us seeing each other's humanity and learning to love each other, even if we look different or worship differently or live differently.
John Legend
#9. We weren't allowed to have secular music in the house growing up. I was home-schooled, and gospel was the only choice we had.
John Legend
#10. We all must follow a different path to let our light shine, and that's what makes us so unpredictable and unique.
John Legend
#11. I wrote the song "Show Me" as a prayer to God asking simple, honest questions about life and death and why there is so much suffering in the world. As I grew with the song I realized I shouldn't limit these questions solely to God; I should ask those questions of others and of myself.
John Legend
#12. 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.
John Legend
#13. I keep learning, listening, growing and experimenting.
John Legend
#14. 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.
John Legend
#15. I don't actually go to a lot of games because I think football on TV is better. Even though I'm pretty busy, I watch 90 percent of Ohio State's games.
John Legend
#16. I care more about the fans in general, just making sure they enjoy what I do. And then also I kind of had this kind of ideal of the kind of music I want to make and what I'm aiming for kind of creatively and just the quality of the music that I'm trying to make. And I have that in my head.
John Legend
#18. My first big break came with Lauryn Hill on a track called Everything is Everything, I played piano on that track way back in 1998.
John Legend
#19. 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.
John Legend
#20. Now that I'm coming out with my own record people can see I'm a solo artist.
John Legend
#21. I know when things feel a little, like, intrusive and when they don't. I don't have a lot to hide. But I do sometimes think, don't share everything.
John Legend
#22. Music was my life ... It was everything to me, even though I was in school majoring in English. I was still very focused on music and always finding ways to perform, so that was what set me up to want to become a recording artist.
John Legend
#23. In the 1970s, for all the Stevie Wonders, I'm sure there were five artists that were making forgettable music.
John Legend
#24. Sometimes I just think people are haters. And if they're haters, you can listen to what they have to say but you have to take it with a grain of salt.
John Legend
#25. I was the front man of the choir and then when I was 12 and I was the leadsinger of my highschool groups.
John Legend
#26. I only want to be associated with music that is high quality. That's my main criteria.
John Legend
#27. I don't like going to football games. I like watching them on television. When you go to a game, it's hard to focus. There's so much going on, and it's cold. I'd rather sit and watch it and get replays and commentary.
John Legend
#28. The most I ever spent on technology is building a studio - I built one at home in Los Angeles. I can't tell you how much exactly, but the whole process is very expensive.
John Legend
#29. I do speak to kids a lot. I am very clear with them that not all of them should aspire to be me and not all of them should be aspire to be LeBron.
John Legend
#30. Music business is hard. It's very difficult. And it's not for everyone. Even if you can sing or even if you can write a song, it takes a lot of determination, it takes some kind of thick skin.
John Legend
#31. It's really about making the best music you can make. It's really about working hard.
John Legend
#32. My line is probably a little more conservative than some of my compatriots in the business. But again, I think it's all - like, it just - it comes down to me knowing who I am and knowing how I want to be seen in the world, how I want to discuss things.
John Legend
#34. I think they need to get a more reliable way of watching television on the laptop. Because I travel so much, if I want to watch my favorite sports team it might not be showing in that place, so I want a reliable way to watch whatever I want to watch on my laptop.
John Legend
#35. Critics like to describe and categorize things, and categories often have a way of limiting people.
John Legend
#36. 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?
John Legend
#37. 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.
John Legend
#38. It's an artist's duty to reflect the times in which we live.
John Legend
#39. My dad liked a lot of Motown, but I didn't listen to it until my teenage years.
John Legend
#40. There's so much music out there, and so many different styles that I've been influenced by, so each album reflects some of that knowledge or influence that I've had.
John Legend
#41. You can always find a stray negative comment on the Internet. It's like everybody loves to put negative comments on the Internet under the cloak of anonymity.
John Legend
#42. The future started yesterday, and we're already late.
John Legend
#43. Hip-hop and R&B are especially fertile bases of collaboration. It always makes good records and good music.
John Legend
#44. I've always followed politics, and I think politics is everybody's business because we're electing someone who's going to be making important decisions that will affect all of our lives.
John Legend
#45. The fun part about collaborating is that you naturally just bounce off each other's energy and learn off each other.
John Legend
#46. There's a lot of hurry up and wait. But it gives you time to write a song.
John Legend
#47. For me, no matter how much money you want to make off of singing, no matter what kind of fame you want to make, achieve, the most important thing to me is making music that you're proud of, making music that comes from you, comes from an authentic place in you.
John Legend
#48. Marvin Gaye was one of the coolest. I look to him as a style icon and as an artist.
John Legend
#49. In my neighborhood in Springfield, Ohio, there were a lot of young kids. We all played tackle football after school, but I knew very early on that I was not an athlete.
John Legend
#50. I don't get to listen to music for fun very often; a lot of what I'm hearing is for work and isn't released yet.
John Legend
#51. I was always the front man for what I was doing from when I was 6.
John Legend
#52. I think I'm happier, not just because of winning Grammys and selling records, but because it's really fulfilling to have all these things happen with something you love to do.
John Legend
#53. At work, you want to stand out but not in extra-funky ways. At the core, it's about dressing for girls - who are most of my fans - and you want to dress up for them. You just want to feel like you're on top of your game.
John Legend
#54. Damn, I love you, but this is crazy,
I have to fight you almost daily,
We break up so fast,
And we, we make up so passionately,
Why can't we just trust each?
You can't hate me and be my lover,
Passion ends, and pains begins, I come back ...
John Legend
#55. 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.
John Legend
#56. My first attempt at a kiss was in fifth grade, but it didn't go so well. Later, I used Boyz II Men and Jodeci songs to come on to girls. I had more success.
John Legend
#57. Well, I was always a bit of a political junkie. Even as a kid I would read biographies of presidents and of civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King and Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington.
John Legend
#59. The best way to fight poverty is to empower people through access to quality education
John Legend
#60. We're just ordinary people. We don't know which way to go.
John Legend
#61. I feel like my job is to make impact, spread love, tell great stories, inspire people, that's what I am going to do.
John Legend
#62. Sometimes I start just on the piano with a melody or musical idea that kind of leads me to certain lyrics.
John Legend
#63. I gravitate toward people that are a little more outrageous than I am. And we complement each other well.
John Legend
#64. I like songs that have like a little bit of quirkiness to them. What I like to do with songs, is kind of throw a little curveball in the lyrics or in the arrangement, to kind of give it a little twist to it.
John Legend
#65. To me, as a musician, there aren't any boundaries genre-wise as far as what can you listen to to inspire you.
John Legend
#66. 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.
John Legend
#67. In terms of the technology I use the most, it's probably a tie between my Blackberry and my MacBook Pro laptop. That's how I communicate with the rest of the world and how I handle all the business I have to handle.
John Legend
#68. As a politician, you have to deal with someone wanting you to fail every day. I think I prefer being in a situation where generally people are rooting for me, and if they aren't rooting for me, they aren't out there to see my downfall. I respect the people who have the stomach for it.
John Legend
#69. I just want my music to measure up to. Part of it's just thinking about my place in history and how this music is going to be perceived, if it's listened to 30, 40 years from now.
John Legend
#70. I was in an a cappella group in school, so it particularly helped me keep my piano chops up.
John Legend
#72. The best training is to play by ear: trial by fire.
John Legend
#73. There are more black men incarcerated today than there were slaves in 1850.
John Legend
#74. Artists in general never stay in the same place, we keep growing. It's still you, you still have that core that you always had, but you work with new people and hear new things.
John Legend
#75. I believed in myself and I am a firm believer you have to think the things you want and visualize.
John Legend
#76. At the end of the day, there's only a few major stars in the music business, and then there's all these people that are aspiring to be that.
John Legend
#77. 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.
John Legend
#78. The main focus for me is not trying to find duet partners. It's about just making great songs. I want most of my album to be in my voice, because it's my point of view.
John Legend
#79. J. Ivy is a brilliant man with an incredible voice and a way with words. I've known him for over a decade and owe my stage name to him believing in me back then before I even had a record deal. I'm excited for him to share his truth with the world.
John Legend
#80. I'm trying to be me and embrace all the parts of me that have grown up, listened to more music and soaked up more influences.
John Legend
#81. I don't feel like that many musicians are competitive with each other.
John Legend
#82. There's a certain confidence that comes with being sure about the way the world works.
John Legend
#83. 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.
John Legend
#84. If a few people decide not to buy my album it's really not going to change my life that much.
John Legend
#85. I just want it to be timeless and timely at the same time.
John Legend
#86. Anybody under the age of forty knows hip-hop, gospel and R&B pretty well, and it's all a part of what we consider to be 'black music.' There is a natural synergy between the three.
John Legend
#87. For me I'm actually doing what I normally do when I do my solo thing and the other thing is actually more new to me.
John Legend
#88. 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.
John Legend
#89. London is a good fashion city. They're a little more daring. There's the element of the aristocracy, which is always interesting.
John Legend
#90. Happy that New York passed marriage equality tonight. A victory for human rights. Progress.
John Legend
#91. I hear melodies and hooks all day. I've always been that way, since I was a kid.
John Legend
#92. John Legend is a nickname that some friends started calling me, and it kind of grew into my stage name.
John Legend
#93. Soul is about authenticity. Soul is about finding the things in your life that are real and pure.
John Legend
#94. Well, I like songs that have like a little bit of quirkiness to them.
John Legend
#95. The weirdest thing about Hillary Clinton's email 'scandal' is finding out some of our senators still don't use email.
John Legend
#96. As a nation - and as a world - we need more truth.
John Legend
#97. The issue I focus on the most is extreme poverty. I think it's kind of out of sight out of mind. I wish there would be more stories about that to connect people to what's happening. To personalize it, to make it real to people, to inspire them to action.
John Legend
#98. Well, what's interesting, I try not to think about the radio when I'm writing a song. I want people to love the song, and that means it might not be exactly thinking about the radio, but it's thinking about your audience and saying, 'I want people to like this song after it's done.'
John Legend
#99. 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.
John Legend
#100. But in my mind I've always been a solo artist- I've just been working with a lot of great people like Kanye and Alicia Keys and Jay-Z.
John Legend
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