I felt ashamed about everything. Me dropping out of high school, me not, you know, just not being beautiful enough. I just didn’t feel like I was smart enough or beautiful enough, you know, for years. – Mary J. Blige
I’m from the element of the streets that says that once you’ve made it, it’s yours. But keep it to yourself. – Mary J. Blige
When I was a child I didn’t care about getting an education, and I didn’t finish high school. – Mary J. Blige
It’s not just songs and glamour. It’s sweat, blood, broken toes, and mistakes… It’s life. – Mary J. Blige
You either learn from your experiences or go back and do the same thing, and I learned from my experiences. – Mary J. Blige
No one intimidates me because I’m not trying to do what you do, because I can’t do what you do. I can only do what Mary J. Blige can do, so that relaxes me right there, and it gets me out of the competition and that whole thing. – Mary J. Blige
From being a little girl in the projects, going through all of the mess that I was going through, to ending up at the Inauguration for the first African-American president, I’m speechless right now because I never thought I’d – I never ever – I couldn’t even see that far. Even when I ended up in the music business, I couldn’t see that. – Mary J. Blige
It hurts a lot when you cannot really comprehend what a person is saying in a meeting, or you don’t even understand what you’re reading in your contract. – Mary J. Blige
I remember a time when all my fans were crying and sad and going through hell. Now, we’re trying to uplift each other and accept ourselves for who we are, even if nobody else does. – Mary J. Blige
So as long as I’m a human being and I’m not perfect, I’m able to say I’m having some growing pains. Because in order to sustain where you are once you made such a breakthrough that everyone is looking at you, now everyone is like, ‘Ooh, is she gonna make a mistake?’ Yes, I’m going to make a mistake. Yes, I’m still gonna do things. – Mary J. Blige
