To many, Bruno Mars is the quintessential entertainer of the modern era. With big flamboyant sunglasses, a gold chalice, and plenty of songs and dance moves, Mars is constantly atop playlists, awards lists, and more.
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For the 37-year-old Hawaiian-born artist, success is regular thanks to hits like “Uptown Funk,” “24K Magic” and “That’s What I Like.” His songs and albums have gone platinum along with his musical collab Silk Sonic.
But with all this success and adoration, one might wonder what Mars has to say about the world at large. About life, love, his craft, and everything in between?
Below are the 30 best Bruno Mars quotes.
1. “Becoming famous was never what I wanted to do. There’s a lot of things that come with fame—it’s what people in the limelight have to do.”
2. “I tend to overthink things. I’m not the guy who screams ‘This is a world smash!’ when I finish a song.”
3. “I love that I can talk to my fans through Twitter, to cut out the middle man. Because I’ve done interviews where my words have gotten twisted, so it’s nice to be able to have things coming straight from me.”
4. “There are no record companies in Waikiki.”
5. “You can’t knock on opportunity’s door and not be ready.”
6. “Music is not math. It’s science. You keep mixing the stuff up until it blows up on you, or it becomes this incredible potion.”
7. “I think that success is having fun.”
8. “I’ve learned people are watching, so don’t do nothing stupid.”
9. “Someone told me something that stuck with me: ‘You have to envision your life, and then go backward.’ I’ve been living by that motto for a while, so I see where I need to be. Now I’m just backtracking and trying to get back up there.
10. “You know, when Michael Jackson does the moonwalk, he’s showing off! When Prince or Hendrix do a guitar solo, it’s confidence! I would hate to be at a show and some nervous wreck is sweating up there and doesn’t feel like he deserves to be there.”
11. “No one sells a song better than the person that wrote it.”
12. “You know, I just do whatever feels right to me! And so that’s what you’re gonna get!”
13. “Songwriters, you have to work—you have to wait for residuals. You have to pray that the song’s going to be a hit. And then a year later, you might get a check.”
14. “I just write songs that I strongly believe in and that are coming from inside. There’s no tricks. It’s honesty with big melodies.”
15. “I’ve had big record label presidents look me in the face and say, ‘Your music sucks, you don’t know who you are, your music is all over the place, and we don’t know how to market this stuff. Pick a lane and come back to us.'”
16. “Writing for other artists helped me figure out that magic you have to capture to make everyone connect with a song.”
17. “I think I don’t take myself too seriously. You know as far as, it’s a fun life. I take my music serious, but I like to have fun.”
18. “I can’t even speak Hawaiian, but if you go there and listen to a Hawaiian song, you get captured because it’s so beautiful, like the melody is just gorgeous and you know Bob Marley is on the radio every single day. It’s very reggae-influenced down there. Basically, you haven’t been to paradise if you haven’t been to Hawaii.”
19. “I don’t ever want to come out with something safe and get away with, ‘It sounds good!’ It’s got to be more than sounding good. The music I like are events.”
20. “I don’t throw lavish parties or nothing like that—I just want a bed and a TV.”
21. “It’s probably the worst feeling in the world when you’re deeply and madly in love with a woman and you know she’s not feeling you the same way, and you don’t know why.”
22. “I really wish I knew what I was doing because I’d be writing hit songs every minute.”
23. “In my songs, I’m not saying something that’s never been said before. The lyrics aren’t going to blow people away. It’s the emotion and the melody that drive it home.”
24. “My demo was terrible, I sounded like a chipmunk. I was so young.”
25. “When it’s your time, it is your time.”
26. “There’s always a bittersweet kind of thing, but I feel like everything had to work out the way it is. Everything that had to happen, happened.”
27. “In pop music, the public usually sees the results—the hit records, the Grammy Awards performances, the concert tours – but not all the work that goes into getting into the spotlight. And not everyone realizes that, even if you have a lot of talent, chances are you won’t make it.”
28. “I feel, as a songwriter, it’s one of the hardest things to do—to sit down and say how you feel.”
29. “I definitely don’t plead guilty to being a heartthrob.”
30. “My mother is a singer, my sisters all sing, and my uncles are incredible singers and guitar players, so it’s just kind of been like my habitat.”
Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images for iHeartRadio
