A singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, director, and activist, Madonna wears so many hats that calling her a multi-hyphenate seems like an understatement. "Icon" is more fitting.
Since first coming on the music scene four decades ago, Madonna has sold more than 300 million records worldwide, and become one of the highest-grossing live performers in history. She has won seven Grammys and 20 MTV VMAs, and she holds the Guinness World Record for bestselling female music artist of all time. She has also been a vocal advocate and fundraiser for the LGBTQ+ community, and she founded Raising Malawi, a foundation that offers education, medical care, food, shelter, and mental health support to orphans and children in need.
Madonna connected with a huge audience after early singles such as 1983’s “Borderline” and 1984’s “Like a Virgin,” which got massive plays on MTV, catapulting both her and the network into phenomena. The world got to know her better in Truth or Dare, the groundbreaking 1991 documentary that was, for a time, the highest grossing in history. She quickly added movie star to her list of achievements, with turns in Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), A League of Their Own (1992), and Evita (1996). She later directed, produced, and co-wrote W.E. (2011), and started Maverick, a multimedia company that released records, books, and films, notably signing blockbuster artists such as Alanis Morissette and the Deftones.
On top of all that, Madonna is a font of wisdom. With her sharp acumen and intelligence, she is able to cut through facades and call a spade a spade. The Queen of Pop is not always music’s most beloved figure, but she is iconoclastic, known more for courting controversy and reinventing herself than seeking out the middle ground to appease, well, anyone. Never a dull subject, the star has been challenged by many interviewers over the years to explain herself and the phenomenon of her popularity. Below are some of Madonna’s best quotes that touch on success, living a creative life, and the things that are most important to her.
Artists are here to disturb the peace.
Thinking for yourself and having a strong opinion and going against the grain is shocking to most people.
There are two sides to every story. Everything isn’t cut and dried; everything isn’t black and white.
I don’t take myself too seriously. I think that’s a quality that people have to hold onto. You have to laugh, especially at yourself.
If we are going to save the world, can we please have a good time while we’re doing it?
What’s really important to me when I do anything that I do is to bring things that I’ve discovered, that inspired me, to the world.
I may have been insecure, I may have felt like a nobody, but I knew I had to do something. If I was going to make something out of my life, I had to hurl myself into the dark space, go down the road less traveled. Otherwise, why live?
Everyone does think of me as impenetrable and/or superhuman, and maybe that’s the way it goes if you’ve lasted for more than three decades. But of course that’s not the truth.
My most meaningful reinvention was becoming a mother, and all the work that I do in Africa.
I don’t think you can ever love enough.
Every day I take a moment to be aware, to have a sense of consciousness about how my words and actions affect people. I do it when I wake up in the morning and when I go to bed.
Creativity is sometimes unconscious, subconscious, conscious — and often it’s a mixture of all three. And to try to explain it sometimes — it’s like talking about love.
Photo credit: Pictorial Press Ltd/ Alamy Stock Photo
