Gloria Estefan Quotations

You've got to believe. Never be afraid to dream.

My family was musical on both sides. My father's family had a famous flautist and a classical pianist. My mother won a contest to be Shirley Temple's double - she was the diva of the family. At 8, I learned how to play guitar. I used to play songs from the '20s, '30s and '40s in the kitchen for my grandmother.

As an immigrant, I appreciate, far more than the average American, the liberties we have in this country. Silence is a big enemy of morality. I don't want our blunders in history to get repeated.

Whatever it is your heart desires, please go for it, it's yours to have.

All I tell artists is, 'Do what you love. Never let anybody talk you into changing what your musical idea is just to try to get a hit, because you're chasing your tail that way. It's not going to happen, and if you're successful, you have to do it the rest of your life. Stay true to it and do it for the sake of the art.'

The sad truth is that opportunity doesn't knock twice.

My mum had a very strong moral code, which I kind of came with. I never really had to be told what was right or wrong - I knew. I was very mature from early on and I was a very good girl, so she never had any trouble with me.

In the United States, if you believe in yourself and you're determined and persevere, you're going to succeed.

I'm very comfortable in my own skin now. I started just being myself more and more. For women, this happens as you get older. I loved my 40s - I thought they were fantastic. And I'm loving my 50s. I'm going to love everything because you're either older or dead!

People tend to forget that celebrities are human beings. We live our lives. We try to do what we love, which is music. And to share it with everyone in our job usually is to entertain and to make people forget their troubles.

I'd love to have a program like 'Dr. Laura.' I studied psychology at the University of Miami, and when I rode the bus home from school, perfect strangers would strike up conversations with me and end up telling me their life stories. I think they could sense that I was studying to help people. That, or I have a face like a priest.

We protect aspirin bottles in this country better than we protect guns from accidents by children.

You can put things off until tomorrow but tomorrow may never come.

Music is almost mystical to me. It really has an incredibly powerful force.

I don't want anything from Cuba. I want them to be free and enjoy the things I enjoy.

My inspirations include the Beatles - love, love, love them - Elton John, Carole King, and Stevie Wonder.

I wanted very badly to be a mum. I'm a very maternal person. But at the point that I met Emilio I was focusing on a career. I never would have thought that I would get married at 21 and much less be a mum by 23.

In this life, I'm always going to choose the positive.

Music has been so healing in my life, so the fact that my music could be that for someone else is the best gift of my whole career. People have told me that they got married to my music, divorced to my music, and played my music while they were having their baby.

There are so many beautiful things that are a part of the world, and I've always looked at life that way; I've always tried to put on a smile and a brave front, not just for my kids but in my own life and all the difficulties that I've gone through.

There are so many difficult things we're living through in the world today, so many horrible events, but we cannot let them stop us. No matter what happens, I feel you must move forward with optimism and not get totally sideswiped.

My job as an entertainer is to take you some place else. I love exploring different genres of music to please my fans.

The responsibility of carrying and bringing a new life into this world is one that cannot be taken lightly.

The Internet has been a blessing and a curse. The curse we know: A lot of people appropriating your intellectual property without paying for it. But I think it's important to realize the blessing of the Internet, which is that everybody has a voice and you can break through, even without a record company.

We seal our fate with the choices we take, but don't give a second thought to the chances we take.

The reason I'm not more political is because I have music. And from a young age, I needed it. After prison, my father came to America, joined the Army, fought in Vietnam - and was exposed to Agent Orange. He died a slow, horrible death. Music was my escape.

As an entertainer, my job is to help people have fun.

I have a very open line of communication with both my children.

When I was a teenager, I was fat. I was shy. I wore glasses. I had a big eyebrow and hair all over my body. They were years of torture.

You want your fans to like what you do, because it's coming from your heart and soul. You write it, you produce this thing. It's like your baby.

My mom was an amazing singer and music was a big part of my life, so I grew up listening to Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, Henry Mancini; I used to watch 'The Andy Williams Show' on TV. I was very musical, so I was watching stuff that most kids my age wouldn't be interested in.

As an artist, you dream about accumulating enough successful music to someday do just one greatest-hits album, but to reach the point where you're releasing your second collection of hits is beyond belief.

Being Latin parents makes us extremely expressive with our affections.

Everything that an artist does is a risk. Some people want you to stay the same. If you want to evolve, they want to keep you in a certain place.

I have great genes. Thank you to my mom and dad for that one.

I hold 'Mi Tierra,' my first Spanish-language album, very close to me because that was all done in my native tongue and won me my first Grammy.

I spent 15 years on the road between touring and recording and I never saw anything. I want to enjoy life.

I think that the only way to teach is by example, as children will more easily follow what they see you do than what you tell them to do.

I'm a writer and this is what I love to do.

Once you know the Romance languages, singing in those languages is so sexy and sensual. I do have a global audience, so why not?

You know, it's funny how songs continue to grow and evolve and become a new and deeper reflection of your life.

Touring is hard. It's really hard on the singer, especially, because your body is your instrument and you have to be so good, it's like boot camp out there; I can't do anything - just sleep, sing and be very healthy.

I know that people think of me in terms of Latin music and that's wonderful, that's my heritage, that's who I am, but there's so much more to me and my music.

I think we should all live the moment. But you also have to think ahead. You have to think, 'Am I going to be happy with this five, ten years from now? Is it going to let me evolve and grow, or am I going to grow to one day wish I had never done it?' Sometimes you just have to think a little bit ahead.

Fashion is nice, but it's for the fans. If it were up to me, I'd be in a sweat suit!

There are certain realities we must speak of with our children that were not present when I was a child.

My mother had a beautiful, soothing voice that made me melt.

What's the point if you make something that's not you, and you're successful? You have to perform it the rest of your life.

If there's ever been a dark moment in my life... well, I wanted to check out. Music was a big escape.

A lot of the way I sing is playing off other musicians. It's what I love to do the most.

Family has always been the number one priority no matter what happens anywhere else.

Having felt people's love and support first hand through difficult moments in my life makes me feel it's our responsibility to help one another.

I gotta tell you, my nature is not to be the center of attention.

I'm careful what I put out there into the universe, musically. I don't take it lightly.

I've been offered a lot of things that celebrities do that I wouldn't do, like perfumes, lines of clothing and this, that and the other.

My mom was a source of strength. She showed me by example that women, regardless of how difficult life may get, can do it all.

My mom was definitely very strict with me.

Nothing ever stays in the middle. You always go from one extreme to the other, and politics is certainly that way.

Sex and drugs were simply not discussed in our culture at that time.

Sometimes my mother had difficulty communicating with me about certain topics.

The '70s were a hot time. You know? I was, like, the most calm of all my friends.

There's no reason that just because you're a celebrity you can't write.

To know that everything we say and do to this new little human being may have a profound effect on him or her is a daunting obligation.

Apparently Pope John Paul II and his boys - is that what you call them? - loved one of my songs and thought I was putting spiritual messages in my music. I'm not religious as such. Dogma and I don't get along.

When most artists walk offstage, they go to a lonely hotel room. I went home to my family. They were there before the show, during and after. It's been great. I never would have done it any other way. I wasn't gonna miss raising my kids. There was no way that was gonna happen.

I was going to be a doctor, but I think my music allowed me to help more people than I could have done one-on-one as a psychologist. Just like other people's music really helped me.

I wrote poetry, which got me into lyrics. Stevie Wonder, Carole King, Elton John pulled me into pop. I started singing with a band - just for fun - when I was 17. And pretty soon, I was thinking I could sing pop in English as well as Spanish.

When you're a front man for a band, there's nowhere to hide. It took me a long time to get used to that. But music is my first love. I started singing when I talked.

Noelle is apart from everyone else. She's like a person,

My mom was a source of strength.She showed me by example that women, regardless of how difficult life may get, can do it all.

Regardless of culture or language, they really enjoy the album. And that to me, is the best thing.

I strongly feel that we are all connected,

I think every child, every person at some point in their life feels like they don't fit in, ... I wanted to plant some seeds with this book in young children today to realize how important it is to have your identity and to be who you are.

I was the only girl in class who spoke Spanish and the first word I learned was 'stupid' because that's what the kid next to me called me,

We want it to be clarified to us why this family, who has been guarding this boy, is being compelled to betray his trust and hand him over on a silver platter.

We are simply a family that now feels very threatened.

I'm a writer and this is what I love to do. There's no reason that just because you're a celebrity you can't write,

I'm totally animal-oriented, ... I've got nine dogs, eight birds, turtles, fish and I had wallabies at one point.

All I do is pray for that boy and his family. Every time I see his little face I feel he's in a tough spot ... I don't think anybody wins in this issue.

The Magically Mysterious Adventures of Noelle the Bulldog

They are smaller shelters in great need of many things. We are taking things that they specifically requested that they need at this moment.

I am privileged to help in some way,

Motherhood is... difficult and... rewarding.

My friends call me 'Dolittle One' [a reference to her physical stature and affinity for animals].

It's not so much for me where you come from, who you are, what race you are. We're just human beings that are still a work in progress and there's a lot that we've got to overcome, so that we can all be equal.

You never know what life has in store for you, but I believe there are certain things one is meant to go through

A parent that's upset or resentful is not going to be a great paren.

A woman's exterior beauty is a reflection of her internal peace and happiness.

[As of November 17, 2006] 'Noelle's Treasure Tale' has remained at No. 3 on the New York Times children's best seller list since its October 10 release.

Well first of all, I'm a singer. I sing since I talk. So the great ballad singers, the people that sang with so much feeling, jazz, blues, all those singers, they were songs that I listened to, records that my mom played for me, and then later I bought.

One of the most beautiful things we can give our child is music education.

I wouldn't recommend working with your partner for everyone, because it's tough. There's got to be a really keen balance. You've got to know when to stop being the manager and become the husband. I can't go home and complain to my husband about my manager.

We seal our fate with the choices we make.

The library takes me away from my everyday life and allows me to see other places and learn to understand other people unlike myself.

I'm in great shape considering I have hardware in my back. I work out constantly to keep my muscles limber and my abs strong so they can take the burnt of everything.

There's some people that are 24 hours with the baby and it doesn't make a difference. They could be anywhere.

[I would like to be] one of [the first pop singers to perform in a free Cuba]. I know the list is huge. And it would be hard to pull off -- I'd have a lump as big as a tostone [fried green plantain] in my throat. But oh my God, what a dream -- it would be the height of my personal and professional career.

I'm happy and I have a great life.

My Conga people [fans] will find me anywhere I go.

It's a universal story, it's an immigrant story, and it's a love story. In the United States, if you believe in yourself and you're determined and persevere, you're going to succeed.