I know there's more to life than making lots of money and being successful and even getting married and having a family.
I go to Malawi twice a year. It's where two of my children were adopted from, and I have a lot of projects there that I go and check up on and children who I look after. It's sort of a commitment that I've made to this country and the hundreds of thousands of children there who have been orphaned by AIDS.
I refuse to act the way someone expects me to.
I suppose I sometimes used to act like I wasn't a human being... Sometimes I look back at myself and remember things I used to say, or my hairstyle, and I cringe.
Growing up, I didn't feel cool; I didn't fit into any crowd.
I think that everyone should get married at least once, so you can see what a silly, outdated institution it is.
I'm a showgirl. After 20 years in show business, I've learned to roll with the punches.
But I love the idea - whether it's in my work or where I live - exploring new frontier, and I like putting myself in strange places and trying to survive and figure things out and gather up an infrastructure. I like knowing that I could figure out a way to live anywhere.
In England especially, I've found that if you bring up King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson at a dinner party or a social gathering, it's like throwing a Molotov cocktail into the room.
I don't like rooms you never use or that are wasted space but I also like a sparseness and a cleanness.
I'm always looking for something new: a new inspiration, a new philosophy, a new way to look at something, new talent.
I'm tough, ambitious, and I know exactly what I want.
I wouldn't live in Chicago cause it's too conservative, aside for the fact that Oprah Winfrey lives there.
If I was a girl again, I would like to be like my fans, I would like to be like Madonna.
A lot of places I go are dangerous, like Tel Aviv or Rio, but that never stops me from going there and putting on a show. I have good security. I don't worry about that.
I'm ambitious. But if I weren't as talented as I am ambitious, I would be a gross monstrosity.
I'm opening gyms around the world to encourage people to get in shape and feel good about themselves; bringing art through dance to gyms to make my gyms different from other people's.
I always thought I should be treated like a star.
I was named after my mother. And I guess when I started making records, Madonna Ciccone seemed too long and complicated, and I just got stuck with Madonna.
I think the biggest reason I was able to express myself and not be intimidated was by not having a mother. For example, mothers teach you manners. And I absolutely did not learn any of those rules and regulations.
