R. Kelly Quotes

#1. 'Love Letter' reminds me of 'Chocolate Factory' and 'Happy People.' It's a little bit of both of those, yeah. I just wanted it to be classy, man. And romantic. And maybe 10 percent sexy.

R. Kelly

#2. In life, you have people that love to party. That's me. People that love God. That's me. People that love sex. That's me. People that love people. That's me. And people that make mistakes. That's me also.

R. Kelly

#3. I'm not very good at picking stuff up off the radio. It takes me way too long to learn other people's music.

R. Kelly

#4. My mom actually had a band called Six Pack - even though there were seven of them - who went around Chicago performing popular songs. Her voice was like Gladys Knight mixed with Aretha Franklin.

R. Kelly

#5. You are the world's greatest, when you say you are.

R. Kelly

#6. When I met Michael Jordan on a basketball court at an athletic club - we hooped together in Chicago - he came to me and asked me if I wanted to do a song for his upcoming movie. I was like, 'Yeah!' I didn't even ask what it was.

R. Kelly

#7. Other kids could read, other kids could write, other kids could spell, they could do math. I felt like an alien. I felt like an outcast. I felt like, 'What is going to happen to me?'

R. Kelly

#8. You know, I love plays. I love the smell of a theater. The old rooms and the carpet and all that stuff. I love to tell stories. Even before I was doing music, I saw myself as a director.

R. Kelly

#9. The depth of your struggle determines the height of your success.

R. Kelly

#10. R. Kelly is an image, a brand. That's my job. There's a whole other side of me that's Robert, who is a father, a friend. But then I put on the game face and go into the studio and do the music. That's just another day at the office.

R. Kelly

#11. Not only did I get an A in music but I got an A in ladies.

R. Kelly

#12. All the sounds on 'Trapped in the Closet' - the knockin' on the door, when I grab the keys, when I walk down the stairs, the car horns - we sampled all of those things around my house.

R. Kelly

#13. If you're gonna tell your life story, you gotta be honest, or don't do it.

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#14. I started to wear the sunglasses all the time at school, hiding behind them ... I'd walk down the hallways, practically hugging the wall, dragging my head against it like I was crazy.

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#15. I don't really know the story of the Pied Piper. I don't read stories, first of all. I just remember either a rabbit or a rat leading people out of the village with a flute. That's all I can tell you.

R. Kelly

#16. People can say whatever they want about you without knowing the facts. They can criticize you without even knowing you, and hate you when they don't even know you. All of a sudden, you're, like, the bin Laden of America. Osama bin Laden is the only one who knows exactly what I'm going through.

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#17. I've really been writing a lot of country songs. I used to get criticized for doing a 'Bump & Grind,' then turning around and doing a gospel song. But the truth is I'm glad I have a gift that allows me to switch lanes.

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#18. You know, I'm no different from a fireman. You got to run into a fire no matter how big the blaze is.

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#19. I want people to notice my writing abilities are real and that I'm not just stuck in one situation.

R. Kelly

#20. When a person is found not guilty, they're found not guilty.

R. Kelly

#21. I did 'Love Letter' and 'Write Me Back,' and those were fun albums for me to do because they took me back to music I love.

R. Kelly

#22. You save money so your kids can go to college - no matter what they are or who they are. They're your kids; you gotta support them.

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#23. When I get into the studio, I write from my heart.

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#24. Country music tells stories, and I've always loved to tell stories.

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#25. I've always wanted to write movies - I always used to tell my mom that I wanted to be a director.

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#26. I have three lovely, lovely kids that I am in love with and that's in love with me.

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#27. I've been blackmailed a billion times. I've been sued for ridiculous things. At one point in my life, I was an ATM machine. But I'm used to that. You don't get used to it, but I'm used to the fact that people will do this, even your own family members, and I don't hate none of them.

R. Kelly

#28. I know how to put it into a melody and make it comical but sexual at the same time.

R. Kelly

#29. I don't want to just go out and do song to song to song. I like to create things before the song actually kicks in, little things you do to excite the crowd.

R. Kelly

#30. You're younger, you might want to go to clubs and kick it, but as you get older, you start seeing that life has more meaning to it. The people that you love are the people you want to start trusting and start wanting them to trust you and start respecting them.

R. Kelly

#31. Sometimes I feel like music has made love to me.

R. Kelly

#32. I always follow what my spirit tells me to do.

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#33. Nobody knows 100% what affects the human body, mind or spirit.

R. Kelly

#34. Ronald Isley is a musical genius.

R. Kelly

#35. 'Trapped in the Closet' is pretty much forever. I've got a leash on this thing now. I'm going to walk it.

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#36. Before I can finish one song, another is knocking on my door in my head.

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#37. Take away the In God We Trust, tell me what the hell is wrong with us.

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#38. I just never, in my career, got into doing a lot of press.

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#39. 'The Notebook' was beautiful, and I was crying because its hero and heroine had died together.

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#40. I had a cyst on my tonsils, and I couldn't sing. I had to have an operation.

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#41. I try to write life and not songs. People live life, and when you write life, you're going to mess around and touch somebody's heart, and they'll relate to you and what you're singing about.

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#42. I know that I'm not a criminal. People say that, but my music speaks for itself. And I believe in my music.

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#43. I belive I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky.

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#44. This album was designed to touch your soul.

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#45. You can't satisfy everybody. I will continue to do my job until I get fired, and the only people who can fire me are my fans.

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#46. If I'm going to be a leader then I have to go places that other people are afraid to go to. That's what makes a leader. To be not afraid to step out and go over the frontline. To stare darkness right in the face.

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#47. I'm not an A student; I'm not even a B student, but I've gotten a lot better with the reading because of texts. And I can voice-text and say whatever I want to people.

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#48. I have fans, and I have family that love me, and I have my music, and I have my breath going in and out.

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#49. I'm a lover of all sorts of music, which makes me a chameleon when it comes to performing anything, whether it's opera or whatever. As long as it's good and it feels good, I'm going to cling to it.

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#50. My friend, there is no end when it comes to 'Trapped In The Closet.'

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#51. I only feel sorry for weak people. And mostly what I've come to find is that the weak people are the ones that are the haters.

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#52. I am very conscious of who I am as an artist and as an inspirational person.

R. Kelly

#53. Biggie was a lyrical genius: he was a musical painter with words. As he rapped, you would see the picture come to life as you heard his story. You hear a lot of rappers rap; you hear a lot of singers sing, but you don't see the movie in your head the way you do when you hear Biggie rap.

R. Kelly

#54. There are miracles in life I must achieve. But first I know it starts inside of me.

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#55. The power of pussy, that's why niggaz get their hair cut.

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#56. I spend like $2 million a year on Chinese food and pizza for ten people in the studio who don't sing or produce.

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#57. In my life, I wanted to feel tall. I wanted to be somebody. I wanted to be tall as the Sears Tower. I wanted to be on top of the Sears Tower. I wanted to be as strong as the Sears Tower feels.

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#58. I said that when I establish myself as an artist that can do pretty much anything I want to do in music, I'm going to make a country album.

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#59. To make an album like 'Love Letter,' everything's got to be about love. Everything has to have a great feeling when you listen to it.

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#60. Fans can never accuse R. Kelly of doing the same thing; I keep mixing it up.

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#61. I couldn't believe I was working with Michael Jackson. I thought, growing up as a kid, I thought Michael was a cartoon.

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#62. Just listen to all this sweet, sweet music. I'm working the music.

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#63. It's amazing to know that 5 years ago I was writing songs in a basement in the ghetto and now I'm writing for Michael Jackson. I'd be a fool not to say it's a dream come true.

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#64. When I was performing on streets, there was no pressure. People accepted me. They loved me without knowing me.

R. Kelly

#65. When you're me, when you're R. Kelly, everybody wants a piece of you, and if you don't give 'em a piece they'll find a way to get a piece of you one way or the other.

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#66. I walk around every day with a radio playing constantly in my head, and this radio station plays a lot of hits. But it's all my songs, so that's something to be excited about 24 hours a day.

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#67. To hear the appreciation, the screams - that's what any of us need. We're at our best when we're wanted.

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#68. With my gift, I can pretty much write a song out of anything.

R. Kelly

#69. Everywhere I go, from malls to restaurants to sold-out tours overseas and back, everywhere I've been, I get nothing but love.

R. Kelly

#70. I was the highest-paid street performer, probably, in the history of Chicago. I was making like $800 a day.

R. Kelly

#71. If I could change anything, I would definitely have had a father around. My father. I would definitely say it affected me deeply as a young man, coming up. Who doesn't want a father? Those are the beginnings, and those are what can dictate the roads you choose in life, and choosing them well.

R. Kelly

#72. My mother always told me if you write about life, you will always be in the game. Just don't write songs ... write life. I decided to take her up on that.

R. Kelly

#73. I gave a Christmas party last year - well, two Christmases ago - where I did a Sam Cooke show. I didn't perform as R. Kelly. I performed the Sam Cooke show from 1964, when he performed at the Copacabana.

R. Kelly

#74. I really don't chase songs. I get in the studio, I know what I gotta do; I'm pretty much programmed to do it.

R. Kelly

#75. You make a right on L, make a left on O, come to a green light and that's when you can go. You keep straight on V, until you come to E, that's when you see a big sign that say's welcome to Love Street.

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#76. I've heard people have written books of me. People don't even know me, but they've written a book on me. You ever heard of hearing it from the horse's mouth? I'm the horse.

R. Kelly

#77. I've always had mostly women come out to see me perform. That's the reason the guys show up; they know R. Kelly is going to draw the women. Most of the songs I'm singing are catering to women anyway.

R. Kelly

#78. I started learning everybody's riffs, from Donny Hathaway to Jeffrey Osborne to James Ingram. That helped me create my own style of singing.

R. Kelly

#79. Within all of us there is a storm. Some believe it will never end: but he who has faith in the heavens above will weather any storm.

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#80. I started calling myself the Pied Piper, when I started using the flute sound in my music.

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#81. While the angels sing, I'd ask you to marry me, give you the sun for a diamond ring, if I could do those things.

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#82. I love blues. My grandfather did blues.

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#83. My mother wasn't rich, and I never seen my father. I was a street performer. I've been shot. And now I'm known around the world, and I've touched a lot of people with my music. That's one of the great testimonies that's gonna go down in history.

R. Kelly

#84. I have Marvin Gaye's driver's license. His wife sent it to me, because she really loved my 'Happy People' record. She said that she thought it represented the sprit of her husband. The license is from California. I get inspired every time I look at it.

R. Kelly

#85. When I think of musical geniuses, I think of Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson and Prince. That's who comes to mind.

R. Kelly

#86. I love that I can play around with all types of music.

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#87. Once I started singing, I didn't have to try to be cool. I was just one of the coolest guys around.

R. Kelly

#88. Jigga, Kells, Not Guilty

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#89. I've had money thrown onstage, dollars, couple of five-dollar bills. I took the money, but it wasn't much.

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#90. I like to give people more than their money's worth.

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#91. I've called myself the Pied Piper, I've called myself the Weatherman, I've called myself Kellz, I've called myself a lot of things, changing the name, switching it up, just flipping, remixing. But never to harm anybody. Never to make a deep statement for people to dig into and figure it out.

R. Kelly

#92. I don't want fans mad at me, so I gotta give them what they expect and what they want.

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#93. I'm the Ali of today. I'm the Marvin Gaye of today. I'm the Bob Marley of today. I'm the Martin Luther King, or all the other greats that have come before us. And a lot of people are starting to realise that now.

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#94. Always believe what you see - with your own eyes, that is. Always believe what you see. That's the best way to go about this business. I've heard a lot of things about a lot of people, and it was never true.

R. Kelly

#95. I learnt a whole lot from my mother. About music, relationships, being a good person, loving people, the whole of life. I learnt about everything from her. Every single day I think about her. All through the day.

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#96. I don't have a job, so I sit in the studio all the time and think of stupid stuff to do.

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#97. I'm very responsible. And with ability you have to have responsibility. I'm not perfect. But you have to make sure that your children will know that daddy makes mistakes.

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#98. I still feel like I'm alone at times - even if I'm in the midst of a million people. Because no one - including me - understands my mind creatively. I haven't really been formally introduced to my gift yet. I feel like I'm still on the runway.

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#99. When you go to church, if the pastor at some point doesn't make you laugh, he probably ain't gonna make you join.

R. Kelly

#100. Well, I believe that the depth of your struggle can determine the height of your success. I was inspired to come out of everything I've been through and end up in a place where I never thought that I would be.

R. Kelly