The worst mistake of a woman is to go to the kitchen, because then she never gets out of there.
"I admire a person who, for the love of art, is able to take off their clothes in front of a camera. But I'm not capable, I'm too cowardly for that".
"It's not easy to work with me, I recognize that. It's not easy if those people aren't as perfectionistic as I am".
"The worst frustration for a singer is choosing a career in making music and then not being able to make music because you're always giving interviews".
"My brain, I believe, is the most beautiful part of my body".
People think I like to expose my body. But I don't. It's just because the dance moves require it.
I love reading about history. Sometimes, I feel I was born in the wrong era. There was more creativity in the air when people were still discovering new worlds.
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 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'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 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 do feel that there is a difference between - especially the visual part - what I used to do in Latin America and what I do now. This album (Laundry Service) came out and all of a sudden I saw myself surrounded by 20 stylists, makeup artists, hairdressers, directors, assistant to the director, assistant to the assistant to the director. 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.
My belly dancing represents me - it's a trademark. I've tried to incorporate it in original ways in modern songs. But sometimes it bugs me a bit that people resort to (saying) that I'm shaking my ass with a huge sexual charge, instead of recognizing it as a move that, yeah, it's loaded with sensuality, but it's also part of an artistic expression.
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.
The industry is a bit more visual oriented (more) towards something to the eyes than something to the ears, That's a bit of a contradiction. We can't forget that, at the end of the day, what really matters here is music. I must confess that sometimes I have been a victim of that.
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 TV.
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.
On death: I always tried not to touch that subject, because it would really give me existential anxiety. Death is not only related to the physical death of the body, it's also related to the death of relationships or feelings. Every day, I feel a little bit older, a little less alive, more alive with the possibility of being less alive, closer to death.
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.
Every single project, it doesn't matter how big it is or how small it is, we take it with the same interest and the same enthusiasm, and we make the same effort. I feel the exact thing before I sing on Saturday Night Live as when I sang on a very small TV show in Colombia. Before the first singing contest I ever participated in, I felt the same nervousness I feel now. So part of me gets bigger and keeps evolving, but at the end of the day, you end up feeling the same things.
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.
