Lauryn Hill is the often reclusive, undeniably talented artist who rose to fame and popularity in the mid-’90s with the rap trio the Fugees. After that group disbanded, Hill ventured out into a solo career and did well before becoming fed up with the entertainment industry and the business of celebrity.
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Still, the 48-year-old New Jersey-born artist maintains an air of mystery and nobility, a world-class singer and rhymer. With all of that to her name, one might wonder what Ms. Hill has to say about life and love, her career, and the world around her.
Below are the 20 best Lauryn Hill quotes.
1. “We can’t plan life. All we can do is be available for it.”
2. “Be honest, brutally honest. That is what’s going to maintain relationships.”
3. “That strong mother doesn’t tell her cub, ‘Son, stay weak so the wolves can get you.’ She says, ‘Toughen up, this is reality we are living in.’”
4. “Hip-Hop isn’t just music, it is also a spiritual movement of the blacks! You can’t just call Hip-Hop a trend!”
5. “Being young and female in America, you watch a lot of T.V., and you grow up on false images of what love truly is. We think the man with the best rap will protect and save us, but it’s not usually that way. Then you learn love is something deeper and purer in form.”
6. “You don’t know how much artists go through to make it look so easy. It’s all in the practice.”
7. “Over-commercialization and its resulting restrictions and limitations can be very damaging and distorting to the inherent nature of the individual. I did not deliberately abandon my fans, nor did I deliberately abandon any responsibilities.”
8. “As musicians and artists, it’s important we have an environment—and I guess when I say environment, I really mean the industry, that really nurtures these gifts. Oftentimes, the machine can overlook the need to take care of the people who produce the sounds that have a lot to do with the health and well-being of society.”
9. “I tried to manipulate and control people, and I harbored resentment. I wanted to be forgiven, but I wouldn’t forgive others.”
10. “People need to understand that the Lauryn Hill they were exposed to in the beginning was all that was allowed in that arena at the time. I had to step away for the sake of the machine. I was being way too compromised. I felt uncomfortable having to smile in someone’s face when I really didn’t like them or know them well enough to like.”
11. “I do support artists standing by their beliefs and walking with integrity. We have to find a better way to commercially exploit music while giving artists their proper respect. This cannot be done while taking their contributions for granted or trying to control the scope of their growth and power through threats and fear tactics.”
12. “This life is a process of learning.”
13. “The less I have, the freer I am to do whatever I want to do.”
14. “We call ourselves creators and we just copy.”
15. “To those supporters who were told that I abandoned them, that is untrue. I abandoned greed, corruption, and compromise, never you, and never the artistic gifts and abilities that sustained me.”
16. “When I have a creative insight, there is a high. I think back in the day, I made music as much as I did because it made me feel so good. I think you could argue that there is a creative addiction—but, you know, the healthy kind.”
17. “We have to make sure the music and the message and the words and all the elements come through in our songs and every time we appear in public.”
18. “I wouldn’t even hold my kids sometimes because I didn’t want them to spit up on me when I was dressed for an awards show.”
19. “Since those who believe they need a hero/celebrity outnumber the actual heroes/celebrities, people feel safe and comfortably justified in numbers, committing egregious crimes in the name of the greater social ego. Ironically diminishing their own true hero-celebrity nature in the process.”
20. “When you’re young and everything dramatic is exciting, you start to believe that hype that, in order to be an artist, you have to suffer. I’ve graduated from that school.”
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