Shakira: "It's not easy to work with me, I recognize that. It's not easy if those people aren't [as] perfectionistic as as I am."

Shakira: "I feel comfortable in my pop shoes. They let me walk in any direction. I like to go from one extreme to the other. One day I feel that I want to do a song with reggaeton influence, I do it. The next day I feel I need to do a song with rock elements to it, I do it."

Shakira: "My brain, I believe, is the most beautiful part of my body."

Shakira: "I think asking questions is the most ingenious way to discover the truth—if there is any truth to things. There can be many truths, like two sides of a coin. I often try to apply that to the upbringing of my kids. I’m a tiger mom and a helicopter mom and all these different moms."

Shakira: "I think musically speaking I'm the result of what I've been hearing my whole life."

Shakira: "I made a love map in my head. I had to make sure I wasn't designing anything that had been made before, you see. I didn't want to design anything similar to my past. My relationships in the past were not the best things for my future."

Shakira: "People get jaded in every profession, but for some reason, I feel as passionate as when I was 13 years old and just released my first album. I feel the same amount of adrenaline in my blood, and the same amount of curiosity as well. Curiosity about why I'm different."

Shakira: "I’m the type of person who really needs to genuinely believe in what I do or I’d rather pass."

Shakira: "I’ve always had a strong will. The nuns at my school told me, '¡Es que eres voluntariosa!' ('You are willful!') I’m like, That sounds like a good thing to be. I think they were trying to say I was stubborn: 'You want to get your way.' I’m like, Hell yeah, I want to get my way in life."

Shakira: "Dealing with boys at work and being the only girl can be challenging. I have my insecurities, but I've learned I have to be a good sport. I have to be able to take certain jokes and not take them personally. There are jokes made almost every second of the day. I had to develop a tough hide. You know, the music industry is dominated by guys."

Shakira: "I don't like easy paths, I like challenges."

Shakira: "I was shy. To this day, I find it hard to sing to a small group. It’s embarrassing. I feel a little silly, a little ridiculous, and a little naked. The stage and crowd and lights and applause of the people dress me. Once you take that away and you’re there with your voice—it’s such a private, intimate act, the one of singing and exposing your soul. It’s not a coincidence that people sing in the shower most of the time, because that’s when they’re completely naked and uninhibited and alone. When my dad discovered my voice, he was just proud and wanted to share what his little girl could do."

Shakira: "I've never really had much of a social life."

Shakira: "I try to be in control because some of your essence kind of gets a little hurt. That's why it's so important for me to do these live shows. On the stage, there's no tricks, there's no way to fool anybody, so you either like what you see or you hate it, that's it. It's just the bare truth."

Shakira: "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."

Shakira: "I always felt the stage was the only place where I was completely uninhibited because usually I'm shy, although I've learned how to cover it."

Shakira: "Belly dancing puts you in touch with your most sensual aspects."

[On why she believes the paparazzi don't bother her]

Shakira: "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."

Shakira: "That’s when having a partner who’s completely opposite in that sense comes in handy. My mind never stops. I dream about my kids. I worry about them constantly. I torture my poor husband."

Shakira: "I pefer an ugly truth to a pretty lie. If someone is telling me the truth that is when I will give my heart."

Shakira: "Yeah, aloneness—I like that word—is necessary. You can’t create if you’re surrounded by people and stimuli all the time. You need to see yourself in the mirror at times without makeup. And in that vulnerability of your life, that’s when the most honest thoughts surface."

Shakira: "I consider myself a laborer, building my career brick over brick under the sun."

Shakira: "I didn’t make the music I made just to please a type of audience or to accommodate a specific need of the market. I did what felt honest. On the flip side, when I entered the U.S. market, I wanted to honor my Latin roots."

Shakira: "I am a person who has many dreams. But as soon as I accomplish one, I move on to the next. That's my fatal, absurd nature. Human beings are slaves to our dreams, and I am, too. Now I think I just want to share my musical proposal in its entire form."

[On her single Dare]

Shakira: "Dare sounds like Brazil, but it also sounds like the world. It sounds... Yea it sounds global, and happy, and anthemic."

Shakira: "Always I was dreaming of a record contract. From 10 to 13 it was all I could think of. I worked hard for this dream. Nobody could say I didn't try."

Shakira: "I'm just a consequence of the great musical momentum and the great changes we are going through in the world."

Shakira: "I always knew that I was tremendously creative. I recited love poems, I wrote stories and I got excellent grades in every subject, except for maths."

Shakira: "A good fragrance should have a certain personality that makes people identify the scent with you."

Shakira: "My dad always liked to have interesting conversation at the table. He was kind of an intellectual. He liked to try to teach us about literature, he was always very attracted to politics, and he would want to find out what we thought about different things. He always made it interesting. Of course, now we talk about more trivial things."

Shakira: "In this life, to earn your place you have to fight for it."

Shakira: "I now talk to different cultures, and I hope that I can bridge those gaps and differences between us. It's an adventure, a dream... I feel like I'm on an anthropological mission."

Shakira: "Fame isolates people from reality. That happens to many artists, and I don't want it to happen to me."

Shakira: "Becoming a mom forced me to re-prioritize and make room for the things that are most important, while recognizing that there are things I can let go of and the world won't crumble around me."

Shakira: "I'm a multi-faceted woman and person, like all women are - there's no black and white. We have shades of grey in the middle. And even many more colours that other people don't see!"

Shakira: "Gerard and I pretty much share all parenting responsibilities, although I'm definitely the disciplinarian."

Shakira: "I had experiences of bad boys who did not tell the truth. Truth is important to me. I always say that in my town the people do not lie and that's what I was looking for in life. So, while recording the album I designed the man of my life in my head."

Shakira: "I didn't expect babies to need so many diapers. Nobody told me they needed to be changed so often."

Shakira: "Videos come definitely after the music has been created, but I have always felt, and especially today, that videos are vital in the album process. I think that we live in a very visual era, and if you make a mistake with a video, those images will accompany the song forever."

Shakira: "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."

Shakira: "I thank God that I'm a product of my parents. That they infected me with their intelligence and energy for life, with their thirst for knowledge and their love. I'm grateful that I know where I come from."

Shakira: "I'm a closet nerd. I love to study history and visit museums."

Shakira: "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."

Shakira: "Sensual is everything that refers to the delight of the senses. And that's what artists do, is stimulate the senses in any possible way."

Shakira: "I believe that every single one of us, celebrity or not, has a responsibility to get involved in trying to make a difference in the world. Our generation faces many challenges, some of which were passed on to us by the past generations, but it's up to us to find solutions today so that we don't keep passing our problems on."

Shakira: "I know what it's like to feel that fear and the need of affirmation and appreciation. To build confidence in yourself is the toughest thing."

Shakira: "I do take advantage of, you know, feeling sensual and feeling sexy. And I think that is tremendously empowering and is not diminishing in any way. I fell that any woman who is in control, who is in touch with her femininity and sensuality, is a woman that is empowered."

Shakira: "I think a fragrance is all about sensations and imagery, and can evoke visions, feelings and thoughts."

Shakira: "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."

Shakira: "My songs are the reflection of how I think and how I feel in that moment. But I'm conscious of the fact that artists have a responsibility before the masses and they have to take care with their words."

Shakira: "Success happened little by little for me. I tasted the flavor of fame in small doses: I started at 10 years old when I won a music contest; I was performing at birthday parties, company meetings."

Shakira: "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."

Shakira: "Videos come definitely after the music has been created, but I have always felt, and especially today, that videos are vital in the album process. I think that we live in a very visual era and if you make a mistake with a video, those images will accompany the song forever. There is no way to divorce the image from the music once the video has been filmed and exposed."

Shakira: "I always knew I was going to be a public figure... There was no doubt. Call it a premonition, or fatalism... fatalidad is how we would say it in Spanish.”

Shakira: "You can laugh, but since I was a child, I knew that I was going to be a well-known singer-songwriter; that was something I had no doubts about. It was almost like a prophecy."

Shakira: "What I do is I remove my makeup every night, use a little bit of Vitamin C serum, and that's it, pretty much. Of course, I use my 3D White products!"

Shakira: "I never made it to the school choir because the music teacher didn't like my voice. I was pretty sad. But he was probably right; I did have a voice a bit like a goat, but my dad told me to never give up and to keep going, and it's paid off."

[Comments from her stylist]

Clyde Haygood: “Shakira is a major perfectionist... But this girl has to be in control of everything to get where she is. I mean, look where she came from: Loserville."

Gabriel García Márquez: "With the face of a perfect young girl, and her deceptive frailty, she always had the absolute certainty she would be a public personality of world renown. She did not know in what art or in what manner, but she did not have a shadow of a doubt, as if she were condemned to a prophecy"

Phil Stanton: "There is a real musical intelligence in her work. She has some very good ideas and a real musical brain. She has been a recording artist for many years. She started out as a child star and has been building up her career ever since. She is incredibly professional. When the moment came she was absolutely ready for it,"

Rolling Stone: "Shakira observes every detail, makes every decision herself, yet she remains absolutely calm and, given a few seconds of freedom, easily slips into carefree chitchat. Her manner is easygoing but reserved—intimate but almost surgically impersonal."