I dont like the idea of spirituality done the way its done. The only way I could understand it was through creativity, not by going to an Ashram, or finding a guru or joining a temple. I made work out of it. M.I.A. More Quotes by M.I.A. More Quotes From M.I.A. I'm not sticking up for white kids - I'm going to have a barrage of hate mail - but it's true. If you're poor, you're really poor. M.I.A. hate white kids I feel so terrible for the kids now. In London, even people in their forties can't afford to buy a house or have kids. M.I.A. house kids people That divide between the rich and poor is so crazy, because even white kids are suffering now. M.I.A. crazy white kids In England right now you're not good enough until you get validated. M.I.A. not-good-enough england right-now I get called "ISIS" now. Why don't we have a name-and-shame weapons dealership website? Instead, we're like, "Oh my God, are you really talking about the refugees again, making yourself into a caricature?" And it's like, "Until you stop the person in your country who's making billions of dollars from selling weapons, yeah, I have to talk about refugees." Whatever I say will get twisted or messed with. M.I.A. isis talking country Creativity needs time to harness before it goes out, and because that's difficult, memes have become the creative language. M.I.A. creativity creative needs Culturally, I found myself in a very weird situation: you were the person that had made that journey to the West, and then you were going back to comment on something, and then suddenly you were questioned and told, "You can't touch that now because you're a pop star." M.I.A. stars west journey My experience has to be funnelled through a black experience or a white experience, or it doesn't exist, because that's how we're going to deal with the world. M.I.A. black white world The music industry is so tied up politically. They're afraid they might let other voices in. M.I.A. music-industry voice might Nowadays, [young musicians] are so quick to be like, "OK, fine, I'll take the cheque, or I'll get the stamp from XYZ, and I'm expanding my brand," rather than thinking, "I'm part of this space over here, and in order for it to grow, you can't have it assimilated by this bigger bubble or corporate brand." M.I.A. space order thinking I feel like I can't really have a comment. M.I.A. comment i-can feels In my head I actually think my songs are pop songs. I think, Damn, that's a pop song! I can practice in front of the mirror with my hairbrush for as long as I want to. But when it finally comes out, it sounds avant-garde to people. Right up until then, though, I think, "Of course everybody feels this way. This song's the same as the Greek national anthem." M.I.A. song long thinking With homogenized culture, even if you feel frustrated, you'd have to write a Taylor Swift song to get heard. M.I.A. frustrated writing song Across the world, on your phone, everybody gets the same list of things to read, listen to, and watch. M.I.A. phones watches world I wanted to represent a different decade, and I wanted someone who goes back further than me. I go back the furthest on this thing, I never really noticed that before. I'm going to have to fix that or I'm going to look really old. M.I.A. different When mayors get together they probably have better conversations and have better notes to share about running different cities, and just do what suits. Basically, like when you combine all the religions and take the best bits, you should be able to combine all the cities and take the best bits, the information, the tried and tested things. M.I.A. different together running I find the new Justin Bieber video more violent and more of an assault to my eyes and senses than what I've made. M.I.A. violent eye If it's just politics that's running music, f - k that. I'm out of here! I can't think of anything more boring. M.I.A. boring running thinking I think I have to expand my creativity a bit, because it's difficult for critics to be, "Oh, this person writes their own lyrics and sometimes writes their own beats and sometimes makes her own videos." They funnel me through, "Oh, is it as good as blah-blah's record, which has had 50 million writers on it?" M.I.A. creativity writing thinking People say we're similar with Lady Gaga, that we both mix all these things in the pot and spit them out differently, but she spits it out exactly the same! None of her music's reflective of how weird she wants to be or thinks she is. She models herself on Grace Jones and Madonna, but the music sounds like 20-year-old Ibiza music, you know? She's not progressive, but she's a good mimic. M.I.A. grace people thinking
