Without your health, everything else means nothing. Mary J. Blige More Quotes by Mary J. Blige More Quotes From Mary J. Blige There's not enough time to be disrespecting... Life is too short. Mary J. Blige enough-time life-is-too-short life-is-short I'm a child of God. God is my mommy, my daddy. That's the only thing that'll keep my head up. If I don't remember who I am in him, I'm done. Mary J. Blige daddy who-i-am children For the first time in my life, I'm proud of myself Mary J. Blige time-on-earth i-like-you looks I care about me now. When I didn't care about me, I was, like, 'Why is this going wrong? Why is my life so bad?' But when you don't care about yourself, nobody else is going to care about you. So I learned to love myself, even if nobody else does. Mary J. Blige love-myself care doe I like what I see when I'm looking at me when I'm walking past the mirror. Mary J. Blige mirrors walking past When I was a kid, I needed to sing because it makes me feel good about myself. It makes me feel good, period. Mary J. Blige feel-good periods kids As a kid, I dreamed about being onstage. Mary J. Blige kids As a kid, I was in love with Michael Jackson, and I just knew I was going to marry him someday. Mary J. Blige someday kids The streets respect me because I kept it real with me. You gotta be real with yourself, and the streets recognize game. Mary J. Blige respect-me real games When I was a child I didn't care about getting an education, and I didn't finish high school. Mary J. Blige high-school children school I'm my worst critic, and I like the fact that I can listen to myself now and make fun of myself, listen, make changes - 'Oh, man, that's messed up. Okay, I need to work on that; I need to work on this.' Mary J. Blige fun men needs From being a little girl in the projects, going through all of the mess that I was going through, to ending up at the Inauguration for the first African-American president, I'm speechless right now because I never thought I'd - I never ever - I couldn't even see that far. Even when I ended up in the music business I couldn't see that. Mary J. Blige african-american girl president Don't give up, be positive and if you know someone who knows someone at a record company don't stop beating down their door till you get heard. Don't ever say it'll never happen or it'll never happen. Mary J. Blige dont-give-up giving-up doors I still get nervous about singing. I drink tea with honey and lemon before every concert. And I need to have scented candles in all of my hotel rooms. Mary J. Blige singing tea needs I started speaking about what I was dealing with through my music, and 4 million women responded and said, 'Us too, Mary.' And I didn't know that everyone was hurting like I was hurting. I had no idea. Mary J. Blige hurt said ideas I felt ashamed about everything. Me dropping out of high school, me not, you know, just not being beautiful enough. I just didn't feel like I was smart enough or beautiful enough, you know, for years. Mary J. Blige smart beautiful school Yonkers made me strong and made me believe in myself, because so many people would doubt you and not believe. There are people that would believe in you, but the environment was so harsh, nobody wanted you to get out, you know? Mary J. Blige strong believe people I grew up watching MTV, when Journey was huge, when Pat Benatar had 'Love Is a Battlefield,' and my friends and I used to cut school to watch this woman in the video. We loved Pat Benatar. Mary J. Blige cutting journey school Thank you so much for supporting me from the day I stepped foot into the music industry. It really means something to me to have Maya Angelou speak on my behalf. It also means a lot to have Oprah on my speed dial! Mary J. Blige feet thank-you mean I’ve done well, I’ve been disappointed, and I think it all goes back to you. Of course the labels are going to be the labels. It’s the music business. You are a business. That’s what they do. So you’ve got to protect yourself. Mary J. Blige labels done thinking