“I know what I’m doing even when I’m wearing a pencil skirt.”

Being raised in a developing country opened my eyes to so much I cannot tolerate. In Colombia, education is sometimes considered a luxury, not a human right. And it’s not a priority in the agendas of many leaders.

I want some day to be able to love with the same intensity and unselfishness that parents love their children with.

My dad used to take them to the notary and register them so that nobody could steal them from me.

We need to provide higher quality and innovative early childhood development programs all throughout Latin America.

I just want to grow old with a man who takes care of me, and I want to eventually have kids and want them to be good children to me. Just want to be treated nice and have respect.

I do feel that I have to use my voice for those that don’t have one. I have to do the best I can in my own work to represent my culture, represent the women of my country, of Latin America. What we stand for. What we’re made of.

Because of you, I’m running out of reasons to cry.

My songs are the reflection of how I think and how I feel in that moment. But I’m conscious of the fact that artists have a responsibility before the masses and they have to take care with their words.

I wish that one of my children will be like the Australian guy from the Discovery Channel show. The crocodile hunter.

It’s very difficult to think that you’re with someone that you know, and all of a sudden you don’t know them: it turns out that they betray you. It’s painful, but it’s best to turn the page.

I will never forget that day. I just wanted to see Kurt Cobain’s face. I had a feeling he was very cute. But, I couldn’t see his face.

I’ve shaken hands with every radio station, from Honduras to Ryan Seacrest’s.

I am an avid believer that education – and especially early childhood development – is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty.

I did not want to spend the rest of my life not being able to ride in a nice car.

People are not depressed in Colombia the same way people are in America.

I was five years old; I got addicted to being on stage. I felt like it was the most wonderful place on Earth, performing in front of an audience, who in this case were a bunch of classmates, kids my age.

The problem is that ego can convert anything to its own use, even spirituality.

See, even despite pious statements to the contrary, much of the industrialized world has not yet come to terms with the recognition of the fallacy of what I call the strong man syndrome.

A brave man’s hand can speak for itself, it does not even need a woman’s love to hear its music.

Me as a person, I’m not the president of the NBPA (National Basketball Players Association). I don’t even know what to say. I’m not like this perfect, buttoned-up, suit-and-tie guy.

People are worms, and even the God who created them is immensely bored with their antics.

If you don’t have time to do it right you must have time to do it right you must have time to do it over. If you don’t know where you are going, how do you know when you get there? If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.

There’s something about an American soldier you can’t explain. They’re so grateful for anything, even a film actress coming to see them.

Live right, he reminded himself, and have faith that good things will flow from you even if you never learn of them.