Alicia Keys Song Quotations

When I was first learning songs, I'd have a favorite song, and I'd take the chords and twist them around. I'd learn the chords and then play them backward. That was my first experimenting with writing a song.

A Minor is one of my all-time favorite keys to play in. It's a very moody key, and also 'A' is the first letter of my name. It just represents the songs through my eyes.

It's not until I hear songs that I've done, that I realize how much of an inspiration music from the '60s and '70s has been.

The smaller you strip things down, the more you depend on the songs and yourself, as opposed to arrangements.

Only joy comes from song.

When I did get signed and I was going around letting people know what I was about, that's exactly how I did it: me on the piano, playing a couple of songs I'd written and talking to the people in between. That's how I got my performance chops up.

When I perform in front of large audiences, I'm much more comfortable, because I've already performed in front of tiny audiences - which is much harder, honestly. The smaller you strip things down, the more you depend on the songs and yourself, as opposed to arrangements.