Miguel quotes:

I grew up in Los Angeles when the racial tensions between blacks and Mexicans were very high. Gang violence was very prevalent.

Interestingly, I matured as a musician and as an artist before I matured as a man. What I mean by that is, I was ready to be completely vulnerable and honest with myself and unapologetic when it comes to how I express myself in my medium. But I wasn't as secure in doing that when it came to just being myself.

Historically, black music has influenced other cultures and other genres and created other genres.

I could speak Spanish fluently growing up, but I'm so out of practice, and I have such a tremendous respect for songwriting in the Spanish language.

I think my style as far as vocal delivery and even down to the pronunciation of certain words is so deliberate.

I believe dreams represent the purest form of fantasy we unleash through our subconscious. They represent the truest freedom we can experience. Totally unrepressed and totally creative.

I think your conversations are indicative of your tastes - even your diction.

I fell in love with funk music through my father - Funkadelic - as well as soul and classical early on.

I feel like when you are really appreciative, it makes it easier to have a better outlook and perspective of life in general.

Twitter is definitely not the place to handle business per se.

They are living in the moment. They are not ashamed of the past; they are not worried about the future. Little children express what they feel, and they are not afraid to love.

I just think that Jack White is the consummate artist - an artist's artist. I'm a huge fan.

Man, I grew up like everybody else. Middle-low income family. My parents got divorced like most of the rest of the country.

Art is based on emotion, but being macho is based on ego; the wall protecting that emotion.

I think at any point, as an artist, whatever the medium - just having an audience means the world.

What I will say is that Naz and I are not together just because we like to hang out. The purpose is finding someone that you can spend the rest of your life with, for me anyways.

I have this propensity to just come out and say things. That's how I am in real life.

A lot of people forget that R&B put hip-hop on, R&B put rock on.

I think that the best part of music is when it comes from a real place and has an ability to kind of connect on a much larger scale. It no longer is a personal thing, it becomes everyone else's thing as well.

I feel that as artists - whatever your medium is - I feel that we're watching what goes on around us and we take what we don't see, or we don't hear, or we don't feel and we do something that speaks of it; more about it, for it, or against it - whatever our perspective is - that's what our job is.

Some of us are only going to show our emotions while we're actually vulnerable. But that's what makes us human.

I'm really excited to put music out that is a clear projection of my lifestyle.

I'm a nice guy, but I like to get into trouble.

There is no recollection which time does not put an end to, and no pain which death does not remove.

I mean, there's plenty of artists who are making R&B music, but because of their ethnicity, it's considered something else.

At the end of the day, as a grown man, I don't really care what the sexuality of the next man is.

One of the most telling things about a person is how they say hello, handshakes.

SNL' is probably one of the premiere outlets that a musician can perform on that isn't obviously a music outlet.

I associate creativity with independent music.

You know, people aren't always the most open-minded.

I can write hundreds of songs on simple power chords.

I think there's always been progressive R&B music.

I feel like R&B as a genre has become a caricature of itself.

It was important for me to remind people that there's no formula... there's no boundary to R&B music.

I've honestly never worked with Beyonce. It would be awesome, though; I would love that.

For me, the creative process for me always starts in a personal place. I step away from my iPod or any records or CDs.

All the best times in music were rebellious. I mean, even like Elvis, people didn't want their daughters paying attention to him. He was considered too sexual!

Goat screaming videos are hilarious.

I don't think I live the lifestyle that's expected of a quote unquote R&B artist. I'm just not that dude.

I embrace that I'm different. That I'm unique.

I have learned that you're only relevant to someone if you're beneficial to them somehow/some way

I know I'm a very dynamic performer. Once you come to the show, you're gonna want to have the album. I think it's more about showing people that it's OK to share similarities, but it's more important to embrace your individuality.

I think I'll always make music that sounds different from what is current, but I doubt that it'll sound consistently the same as what I've been doing.

I think in a world where everyone wants to categorize and compartmentalize and rationalize, it's OK to be different.

I think the goal is in general to broaden my fans' perspectives and their horizons. Not to be cliché. But to introduce them to things that they may not have introduced to themselves.

I think there's a huge parallel that affects my musical taste, and connections that have to do with my ethnic diversity and my musical tastes and the diversity of that. And it's interesting that, growing up on the circuit, it posed such a challenge, not only to me deciding what my identity was amongst my peers, but then on the music side, it was like trying to explain or convince people especially in the music industry that there was a place for what I was trying to do. But at the same time, I think it has a lot to do with timing and even me, like, understanding it.

I think what I bring to the table overall is a sense of my own individuality, especially in the urban-male spectrum of what is here and now.

I think what I'm trying to build is a reputation for evolving and for change. Because of the rate of information that we have access to at this point, it's almost hard not to be ever-growing.

I want to be transparent, so I don't leave room for too much thinking.

I would say that the most complex style of singing comes from India. Real, classical Indian music produces probably the best technical and natural singers in the world, just because the patterns and the inflection are so complex in how the style moves and what it requires vocally. I think the best classical singers come from India.

If you look at any religious description of hell, it is the same as human society, the way we dream. Hell is a place of suffering, a place of fear, a place of war and violence, a place of judgment and no justice, a place of punishment that never ends.

If you take your happiness and put it in someone's hands, sooner or later, she is going to break it. If you give your happiness to someone else, she can always take it away. Then if happiness can only come from inside of you and is the result of your love, you are responsible for your happiness.

I'm a big advocate of music being an honest representation of who you are as a person and your perspective.

I'm a firm believer that when children have a strong conviction about something, it's often because there's some powerful experience from a past life. Something that they didn't get to fulfill.

I'm lonely and I'm still kind of searching for someone I can have a real connection with.

I'm not here to write a song for you, I'm here to help you write a song for yourself.

It doesn't matter how much you love someone, you are never going to be what that person wants you to be.

I've always had this tremendous and very deep feeling of knowing my purpose, you know? It never dawned on me, it always very much known.

Just as eunuchs will never know aesthetics as applied to the selection of beautiful women, so neither will pure rationalists ever know ethics, nor will they ever succeed in defining happiness, for happiness is a thing that is lived and felt, not a thing that is reasoned or defined.

PERSONAL IMPORTANCE or taking things personally, is an expression of SELFISHNESS because we make the assumption that everything is about ME!! NOTHING PEOPLE DO IS BECAUSE OF YOU!! IT'S BECAUSE OF THEMSELVES!!

'SNL' is probably one of the premiere outlets that a musician can perform on that isn't obviously a music outlet.

That is why every brother and sister will react differently according to how they learn to defend themselves and adapt to different circumstances. When our parents are constantly fighting, when there is disharmony, disrespect, and lies, we learn the emotional way of being like them.

The extremes of who I'd love to be onstage are David Bowie, Prince, and, I don't know, Bjork.

The grass isn't always greener on the other side. I start off kind of in love and then I leave love and I'm single.

The manifestation of the disease of fear is anger, hate, sadness, envy, and hypocrisy; the result of the disease is all the emotions that make humans suffer.

The Master lives within everyone. When you give food to the one who is starving, when you give water to the one who is thirsty, when you cover the one who is cold, you give your love to the Master.

The one who has the little need is the one who controls the whole relationship. You can see this dynamic so clearly because usually in every relationship there is one who loves the most and the other who doesn't love, who only takes advantage of the one who gives his or her heart. You can see the way they manipulate each other, their actions and reactions, and they are just like the provider and the drug addict.

The whole cultural diversity and musical diversity, I think they almost go hand in hand, you know? It's like a mind space or a it's having an open mind to what else is out there.

There are a couple of homeopathic things that can be done, but you can't really beat good rest and lots of water. That's the honest truth. Making sure I'm well-rested and hydrated makes a big difference. Warm water and honey is a go-to, I don't really drink tea unless it's absolutely organic, because otherwise the caffeine will dry my voice out for some reason.

There's a lot of stuff in the club that's like, it's cool there because you're drinking and all you wanna do is do ignorant sh*t.

There's just something really, really timeless about live instruments. There's just something special about them that you can't really duplicate or grasp without including live instruments.

Travel aesthetics should be just as comfortable and practical as they are fashionable.

Underground hip-hop is, like, one of my foundations, I would say a cornerstone of my foundation of my musical tastes.

What is missing in a lot of urban music is perspective. You hear a lot of regurgitated perspective. It's a lot of: out at the club. Had drinks. Patrón. Big booties. It's this regurgitated idea of living in this, I don't know, one-night-stand moment that always starts at the club and Patrón. And so perspective, perspective, perspective is what I'm an advocate of.

What makes your life different from the next n***a? There is something special about you, so let me help you bring out your individuality.

When I was coming up, I just wanted to play baseball and I'm doing what I love to do most. How can I feel pressure doing what I love to do?

When I'm a part of someone else's creative process, it's all about facilitating their ideas and hopefully bringing their perspective and making it a part of a song.

You can't take yourself too seriously. But always have conviction.

You only know that you're in love when you suffer.

Which not peace for the man who is forced to go to war, for he will find his peace. But wish peace for the man who goes to war willingly, for he will never find his peace.

Most people know my music based on the singles, and think of it as scandalously romantic. There's definitely a romantic vibe, but I often sing things that are very direct. I don't beat around the bush much.