Blige: "I'm my worst critic, and I like the fact that I can listen to myself now and make fun of myself, listen, make changes - 'Oh, man, that's messed up. Okay, I need to work on that; I need to work on this.'"

Blige: "I'm on my way to a place where I'd never dreamed I'd be, and that's perfection."

Blige: "If I'm going to be the best in what I do, I have to study what I'm doing, I have to see what I'm doing. I have to see it, I have to hear it. I'm just starting to appreciate myself - not starting, but appreciating myself in a way where I can look at myself back in a movie or listen to myself as much as I do now."

Blige: "I don't listen to people's opinions. I have people around me who I can trust, but most of all I listen to myself."

Blige: "You can hate me. You can go out there and say anything you want about me, But you will love me later because I told you the truth."

Blige: "I can go out raw with nothing, and my fans would still be happy, but I feel that I owe it to them to give them almost like a Broadway musical at this point in my life. I have to give them something more, so I do have to think of different ways to do it."

Blige: "You know a lot, but you don't know everything."

Blige: "I wish I had known that education is the key. That knowledge is power. Now I pick up books and watch educational shows with my husband. I'm seeing how knowledge can elevate you."

Blige: "If you're not confident in yourself, you're going to waver. I've wavered, and I've lost."

Blige: "I had to learn how to trust my gut. Trust what I know to be right... not right, but not waver on who I am. Know who I am, know what I want, and know it. Not waver on it and be secure in that. And I still struggle with it. But I really... I can't be moved. You can't move me, and that all comes with loving myself, and I'm like my best buddy."

Blige: "Everything is scary if you look at it. So you just got to live."

Blige: "Nowadays, with the state of the music business, for any artist, whether you're up-and-coming or you've been in it for awhile, you have to explore different revenues and different ways of expressing yourself."

Blige: "I know who I am. I am not perfect. I'm not the most beautiful woman in the world. But I'm one of them."

Blige: "It hurts a lot when you cannot really comprehend what a person is saying in a meeting, or you don't even understand what you're reading in your contract."

Blige: "I always want to be a messenger, a person that, you know, that's not afraid to pass on wisdom."

Blige: "There's so many things that life is, and no matter how many breakthroughs, trials will exist and we're going to get through it. Just be strong."

Blige: "I suffered from self hatred so much. It's like I didn't want to look like that any more. I didn't to feel like that any more. It had to be another way."

Blige: "Believe in yourself when nobody else does."

Blige: "I still get nervous about singing. I drink tea with honey and lemon before every concert. And I need to have scented candles in all of my hotel rooms."

Blige: "You either learn from your experiences or go back and do the same thing, and I learned from my experiences."

Blige: "I just want fans to walk away knowing that no matter what's going on, no matter how happy you are, no matter how sad you are, we did it. We're strong in this. We've come a long way, and life is not just one thing."

Blige: "I'm striving toward this acting thing. I'm definitely gonna work hard on that, whatever comes my way, I'm gonna work hard on it."

Blige: "Just don't let the hype of what people are saying and how much they love you, y'know, just take the compliment and be thankful that people are complimenting you, but don't let it consume you; don't let your circumstances around you and the way people view you make you act a certain way."

Blige: "I've been a tomboy my whole life. But then you get older, you get married, you soften up."

Blige: "I used to think I was ugly. I thought I looked like a camel. A person who doesn't love themselves, they will see anything that pops up on their face. I've seen squirrels, I've seen a bird, and I've seen all kinds of animals on my face. But that is the result of self-hate. I've learned to say: 'You know what? I am a beautiful black woman'."

Blige: "You can look at my palm and see the storm coming. Read the book of my life and see I've overcome it."

Blige: "I felt ashamed about everything. Me dropping out of high school, me not, you know, just not being beautiful enough. I just didn't feel like I was smart enough or beautiful enough, you know, for years."

Blige: "I believe there should be no more drama, but it's everywhere you go. It's just about how you get out. You've gotta bob and weave because it's everywhere. How do I keep the drama low? It's about using your head."