These days, it seems a right of passage for many of our most glamorous stars to have the iconic entertainer Usher sing for you, locking eyes and making you feel like the only person on earth. Yes, that is the power of Usher.
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Indeed, the 44-year-old singer, dancer, and businessman Usher Raymond IV remains one of the brightest and most sensual stars on the Planet. But what does the artist, who remains at the peak of his game, have to say about his life, his craft, family, love, and the world at large?
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Below are the 20 best quotes from the eight-time Grammy Award-winner.
1. “Success is about dedication. You may not be where you want to be or do what you want to do when you’re on the journey. But you’ve got to be willing to have vision and foresight that leads you to an incredible end.”
2. “In life, you have to go through something to get to something. From that, the inspiration comes having something of substance to talk about; otherwise, you’re just considered to be fluff.”
3. “The only way you know what it is to be a boxer is to be one.”
4. “The best present a man can give a woman is his undivided attention.”
5. “I learned how music works dealing with Jermaine Dupri, and I learned how image works dealing with Puff Daddy.”
6. “As a kid, looking at Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, New Edition, the Temptations, Motown, people who I felt were huge artists, they made me want to do something.”
7. “Music is not free to make. Studios are going under because people now work at laptops. Quantity over quality is what begins to happen; the idea of what quality is has changed.”
8. “I guess we’re all kinda searching for a connection with something that’s relevant to our past and speaks to who we are, and maybe helps us make a connection to what we are, and where we come from.”
9. “Breaking up is a natural evolution when you try to figure out what you want in life. If you’re with an individual who isn’t moving in the same direction and at the same rate that you are, it ain’t going to work.”
10. “Downtime is not the name of the game.”
11. “I’m not a morning person, but I’ve become one as the result of having kids. The morning is my private time to spend with my boys.”
12. “Artistic development made me who I am. Somebody took the time to help me find what it is that works for me as an entertainer and who I am as a music maker.”
13. “Strivers achieve what dreamers believe.”
14. “In time we grow older, we grow wiser, we grow smarter, and we’re better. And I feel like I’m becoming more seasoned, although I don’t have my salt-and-pepper hair.”
15. “I like a woman who takes care of herself—it says something about the way she’ll care for me.”
16. “Marketing is more important than it has ever been. But I’m trying to tear the layers back and make it not so contrived. I think people just want entertainment.”
17. “I create from a place of passion. It’s like a pregnancy, where you create from a place of passion, and then it grows, and then before you know it, you want to push that baby out.”
18. “I’ve learned that you are who you are, and in the end, if you don’t believe it, then no one will.”
19. “If you get lazy when you’re onstage, it shows.”
20. “My idea of artistry has always been ‘try everything until you find out what works.'”
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