My father was very strong. I don’t agree with a lot of the ways he brought me up. I don’t agree with a lot of his values, but he did have a lot of integrity, and if he told us not to do something, he didn’t do it either. – Madonna Ciccone
Part of the reason I sort of shot out like a cannon out of Michigan and left home at such an early age is because I had to feel independent. – Madonna Ciccone
Imagine if someone like John Lennon or Bob Marley, Sid Vicious, Picasso, whomever, were doing their work, and some corporation, some CEO, some branding entity was saying to you, ‘Well, you can do that, but you’ve got to remove this aspect of your work.’ There would no longer be that purity anymore. – Madonna Ciccone
I think of myself as a performance artist. I hate being called a pop star. I hate that. – Madonna Ciccone
I’m opening gyms around the world to encourage people to get in shape and feel good about themselves; bringing art through dance to gyms to make my gyms different from other people’s. – Madonna Ciccone
I want to give a child a life who wouldn’t be given a life. I want a child that nobody else wants. – Madonna Ciccone
I grew up in a high school where it was very conservative, and I felt like people disapproved of me, and I felt like an outsider. – Madonna Ciccone
Because I was a dancer, I started going to auditions for musical theater, which forced me to sing. – Madonna Ciccone
Writing is a very intimate thing, especially when you write lyrics and sing them in front of someone for the first time. It’s like a really embarrassing situation. To me, singing is almost like crying, and you have to really know someone before you can start crying in front of them. – Madonna Ciccone
The thing about dancing – what it taught me all those years – is it gives you an amazing sense of discipline in forcing yourself to do things that you know are good for you but you don’t really want to do. – Madonna Ciccone
As an artist myself, I know what it’s like to put your heart and soul into something. You can feel the presence of another person. – Madonna Ciccone
If I can’t be daring in my work or the way I live my life, then I don’t really see the point of being on this planet. – Madonna Ciccone
I love being a mother. My children fill me up in many ways, and inspire me in many ways, but I need a partner in my life, and I think most people feel that way. – Madonna Ciccone
I live – I live a highly scheduled life. There’s absolutely no time wasted. I’m very focused. And I have a great assistant. – Madonna Ciccone
We like to put people on a pedestal, give them one character trait, and if they step outside of that shrinelike area that we blocked out for them, then we will punish them. – Madonna Ciccone
I have my work and my faith… If that’s boring to some people, I can’t tell you how much I don’t care. – Madonna Ciccone
I believe that we are at a very low level of consciousness, and we do not know how to treat each other as human beings. We are caught up in our own lives, our own needs, our own ego gratification. I feel a strong sense of responsibility in delivering that message. – Madonna Ciccone
I have a funny relationship with religion. I’m a big believer in ritualistic behavior as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody. But I’m not a big fan of rules. And yet, we cannot live in a world without order. – Madonna Ciccone
Obviously, I feel a great sense of responsibility being a good parent and raising my children. I don’t take that job very lightly. Who they are, what they become and what they contribute to the world is very important to me. – Madonna Ciccone
I believe sometimes we aren’t always in charge of everything that we do creatively. We submit to things as we’re going on our own journey. – Madonna Ciccone
I’m a showgirl. After 20 years in show business, I’ve learned to roll with the punches. – Madonna Ciccone
Of course, my interests and my focus change and become more diverse, more worldly. At the same time, I am interested in the simple basics, which is I love to dance and I love to make people dance. – Madonna Ciccone
One of the things that helps me tell a story through music is to create a character. I have to have a muse, whether it’s Frida Kahlo, Martha Graham, Marlene Dietrich, or Pippi Longstocking. – Madonna Ciccone
Where you record is very important. It can’t be too nice, it can’t be too expensive, it can’t have a view to an ocean or a field. – Madonna Ciccone
My physical transformations – like changing my hair – are usually a reflection of what’s inspiring me at the moment. – Madonna Ciccone
If you have children, you know you’re responsible for somebody. You realize you are being imitated; your belief systems and priorities have a direct influence on these children, who are like flowers in a garden. – Madonna Ciccone
I really saw myself as the quintessential Cinderella. I think that’s when I really thought about how I wanted to do something else and get away from all that. – Madonna Ciccone
