Shakira » Quotes

"I think that we see war as a virtual thing and we even get to believe that bombs fall on top of cardboard cutouts and stuff like that. They don't. They kill real people, real children, real mothers and millions of innocent people."

"I just feel that there are always pacifist solutions, and I think that the leaders know the exit to the conflict, it's just that sometimes they don't want to use them. They just want to continue playing their little game of power. And I feel that us people have the responsibility and also the obligation to demand to our leaders to give us the pacifist solutions. To give us a world in peace."

For several years I worried a lot about protecting an image, but today I have understood that the image cannot be preconceived.

I was unaware of the dispute in Brooklyn. I would never knowingly wear any clothes or support any company who produced clothing with alleged wage and labor violations.

Writing songs has a therapeutic effect, and it either kills off love or wins the heart of the lover.

You're a song written by the hands of God.

You can laugh, but since I was a child I knew that I was going to be a well- known singer/songwriter; that was something I had no doubts about. It was almost like a prophecy.

I had my first boyfriend when I was 12, and my parents knew about it. My dad was very jealous. I had an older sister in medical school, and he would not let her wear tight jeans.

I always believed that women have rights and that there are some women that are intelligent enough to claim those rights. There are some others that are stupid enough not to. It is as cut-and dried as that. It doesn't matter if you are a woman or not; in this life, to earn your place you have to fight for it.

The worst mistake of a woman is to go to the kitchen, because then she never gets out of there.

I want some day to be able to love with the same intensity and unselfishness that parents love their children with.

I admire Madonna because she always did whatever she felt like doing. She went through some controversial periods when people rejected her, but she kept on reinventing herself.

I'm lucky to have family around me. Otherwise, I'll be taking the risk of falling in love with myself. But there are always people close to me who I trust, who will scold me and pull my ears if I need it. Fame isolates people from reality. That happens to many artists, and I don't want it to happen to me.

Of course I am trying to make my accent not bother anyone, but I am not going to drive myself crazy trying to pretend I am an American girl when I am from Colombia.

People think I like to expose my body. But I don't. It's just because the dance moves require it.