Shakira.

Writing in English Was a Major Challenge. I Didn’t Want Other Songwriters to Write for Me. I Wanted to Preserve the Spirit of My Songs in Spanish. I Am the Same Shakira in English as I Am in Spanish.

I Expect My Beloved to Be Kind, Generous, I Expect Him Not to Lie so I Can Look Him Straight in the Eyes, and I Expect Him to Fall in Love with Me 10 Times a Day.

I Think My Dad Is the Only Arabic Descendent Who Is an Unsuccessful Businessman.

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.

I Have Learned That I Am an Adult Already. and to Grow with Something Is Sometimes Painful. and Its Great; I Don’t Say It’s a Bad Thing but Many Things Change, and Many More Responsibilities Come, and You Have More Closure in Your Life, and More Possibilities. It’s Just That It’s Not as Pink as Before, but Its More Interesting.

The Cobra Is Deadly but Mongoose Can Overcome It. We All Have Possibillity to Defeat Prejudiced and Resentment in Our Lives. Fear Is the Thing That Makes Us Attack, That Makes Us Strike. We Must Overcome It. We Must.

I’m a Believer. I Try to Be near God, Because When I Feel That There’s a Certain Distance, Everything Begins to Look Like a Blur. It Makes the Road Somewhat Smoother. When I Feel That I’m Without God, I Have to Make an Effort to Drag My Feet to Keep on Going.

I Think I Look Like a Chipmunk.

The Leaders Are Lacking Love, and Love Is Lacking Leaders.

I Cannot Expect That I Will Be Successful My Whole Life. We Live so Caught up in the Moment, It’s Important to Get Some Perspective. Ultimately, I Know I’ve Been Very Lucky.

When I Perform, I Find Myself Exorcised of Everything That Keeps Me Trapped in My Everyday Life.

A Bed Is Still the First Thing I Look for When I Have 20 Free Minutes. I Still Read a Book If I Have a Free Hour, and Go to a Movie If I Have Four.

I Never Went Through an Adolescence When Kids Become Rebels and Do Drugs. I Was Always the Good Girl.

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.

Earlier I Tried Not to Show My Stomach, Because I Thought It Wasn’t Perfect and I Would Have Seemed Fat. I Would Have Died! but That Does Not Bother Me Anymore. Like My Dad Says There Is Nothing More Beautiful Than Some Meat on the Bones.

I Am a Pop Star, but I Also Have an Opinion. I Grew up in a Country That Has Existed Under the Whip of Violence for 40 Years, so How Can I Not? You Know in My Country, a 5 Year Old Knows Not Only of Disney and Mickey Mouse but of Guerrillas and Paramilitaries. You Grow up with That Kind of Awareness, of What the World Is Really Like. to Be Political in My Country Doesn’t Mean You Want to Run for Presidency, to Be Political Simply Means to Have an Opinion

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.

I’ve Gone Through Everything with the Paparazzi, Where They Are Even Hanging from the Trees Trying to Get a Picture. but I Have a Wonderful Relationship with the Press. I Don’t Feel Mistreated. There Is Great Communication Between Me and the Media, and That Makes Me Feel so Lucky Because I See How an Artist Can Suffer. but I Also Live a Life a Journalist Would Find Very Boring. I’ve Been Dating the Same Guy for Six Years. I’m Not a Party Animal, and You Never See Me Shopping Because I Hate Shopping.

Colombia Is a Country of Victims, and Not of Murderers.

I Certainly Don’t Want to Identify with Cinderella, She Had a Dream That Lasted Only Until Midnight. I Want It to Last Until at Least 3 A.m.

I Guess There’s Many Ways to Become an Enlightened Human Being, but I Guess the Shortest Path Is Always Through Love. and the Shortest Path to Becoming a Better Person Is Always Through Loving Someone. If You Don’t Know How to Treat the Ones That You Love Then How Are You Going to Treat Those That You Don’t Know, or Those Who Are Your Enemies?

I Think in Every Artist’s Life, When, Right After a Performance, We Get to Feel a Certain Loneliness and Solitude. After Receiving so Much Attention and Love from Your Fans, Suddenly Everything Stops.

Nationalism Is Cured by Traveling

I Want to Learn How to Live in the Present with My Eyes Open. Because, You Know, We Always Go Through the Present Blindfolded with Our Hearts in the Past and Our Minds in the Future. and That Way We Never Enjoy the Here and Now.

When You Fall in Love, You Prioritize Everything. It’s Like Cleaning up and Putting Things in Place.

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.

My Celebrity Arrived Gradually, and This Is Why I Am Not Too Much Shocked or Am Not Traumatised. in Spite of That, I Am Always Surprised When I See Myself on Television.

For Several Years, I Worried a Lot About Protecting an Image, but Today, I Have Understood That the Image Cannot Be Preconceived.

In Any Woman’s Life, There’s a Moment When We Stand in Front of a Mirror and We’re Not Happy. It Might Be When We’re 32 and We Think About What It Will Be Like Being 36, or When We’re 36 We Might Think of Being Younger. We’re Never Content with the Way We Are and the Way We Look. but If You Start Loving Yourself the Way You Are, and Accepting Yourself the Way You Are, Your Outlook Totally Changes.

I Was Born Close to the Ocean and Live Close to It. I Spent All My Sundays on the Ocean, and to Me It Will Always Be a Magical Place. I Can Always Find Different Memories in My Head, but Special Moments Were on the Ocean or Staring at the Sea Falling in Love, Playing, or Just Talking to Myself. It Kind of Seduces You. but Lately I’ve Been Fearing It a Little Bit Because of the Sharks, the Attacks, You Know? but Then Again, They Were There First.

In Some Moment, I Came to Fall into the Claws of Moralism. Something Very Typical for a Latin American Woman, Who Has Lived in a Culture of Repression. I Thought I Had All the Answers, I Was Full of Hasty Judgments. Today, I Feel More Liberated and Open. I’m More Tolerant. I Respect Ideas Different to Mine. Moralism Is a Disease. It Shouldn’t Be Exactly Related to Religion, but It Is True That My View of Religion Has Also Changed Lately.

One of the Ways I Grew up Was Through the Loss of People Close to Me. the Person Who Was My Closest Friend and Who Managed Me for Five Years, Patricia Tellez, Died Suddenly from a Blood Clot. the Other Friend, a Friend from Barranquilla, Died from Cancer and She Was Only 33. She Left Three Children.

Technology Scares Me. We Live Surrounded by a Battalion of Sounds, Engaged in Ostentatious Displays of New Recording Techniques. But, to Me, the Fundamental Essence of a Song Lies in the Melody and the Lyrics.

I’m Not a Model for Anyone and the Truth Is, I Never Even Tried a Hit of Pot. I’m Not Saying That I’ve Never Ever Felt Curious, but I Feel That If I Were Doped up I Would Not Even Be Able to Smell, or Eat, or Breathe, or Sing. and I Don’t Want to Start Using Crutches When I Know That I Can Walk. Drug Addiction Is a Loss of Freedom.

I Prefer an Ugly Truth to a Pretty Lie. If Someone Is Telling Me the Truth That Is When I Will Give My Heart.