Home / Authors / M.I.A.

M.I.A.

M.I.A. Quotes

Artist

M.I.A., born Mathangi Arulpragasam, is a British-born Sri Lankan artist known for her unique musical style and strong political consciousness. She blends various musical elements, including hip-hop, electronic, reggae, and world music, creating a distinctive personal sound. M.I.A.'s music often addresses social and political issues, and her music and image are highly controversial.

Filter quotes by topic

All People Thinking Ifs Art Feels Culture Persons Want World Creative

Famous M.I.A. Quotes

“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.”

Persons Country Names Talking Weapons Shame Yeah Dollars Billions Selling Refugee Twisted Isis Website Caricatures

Author:M.I.A.

“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.”

World Black White Deals

Author:M.I.A.

“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."”

Persons Made Found Stars Situation Journey West Pops Comment Pop Stars

Author:M.I.A.

“I come from a generation where you put the art out and had the luxury to sit back and watch the world deconstruct it, and that was valued. Unfortunately now the work lives in a weird context.”

World Art Watches Generations Luxury

Author:M.I.A.

“Any piece of art, when you're putting it on a certain platform, if the platform becomes a political place, you can manipulate things.”

Ifs Art Political Certain Pieces Platforms Manipulate

Author:M.I.A.

“We know that those huge U.S. brands do have political sway.”

Knows Political Huge Brands

Author:M.I.A.

“Creativity needs time to harness before it goes out, and because that's difficult, memes have become the creative language.”

Needs Language Difficult Creativity Creative Harness Time Of Need Memes

Author:M.I.A.

“The music industry is so tied up politically. They're afraid they might let other voices in.”

Might Voice Industry Tied Music Industry Tied Up

Author:M.I.A.

“You have to have your fashion stylist person not sell out and sell your s - t to another pop star because they can pay them twice as much, and do it for the belief and the love of art.”

Persons Art Belief Stars Pay Fashion Sells Pops Stylist Pop Stars

Author:M.I.A.

“You need everyone to get together and just believe in it, and lead by example that it is possible to be outside the system, and that's really super-f - king hard, and I'm sure there's some geniuses out there who can achieve it.”

Needs Believe Hard Together Achieve Example Genius Kings Get Together Just Believe

Author:M.I.A.

“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?"”

Thinking Writing Persons Sometimes Bits Difficult Creativity Millions Records Beats Critics Video Blah

Author:M.I.A.

“Everything I think seems to be controversial, so I feel like I need to just go away for a second and put it all down on paper until the storm passes.”

Thinking Needs Feels Seems Paper Storm Going Away Controversial

Author:M.I.A.

“I don't have a community like a black community to belong to [with] a musical platform that's been built for years and years and years, or the film-making culture, and I don't have the white one to belong to.”

Years Film Culture Black Community White Built Musical Platforms Black Community

Author:M.I.A.

“If right now, culture's so divisive, it just leaves these millions of people like me out.”

People Ifs Culture Millions Right Now Like Me

Author:M.I.A.

“Predominantly in the West, if you can only have creative voices that are either black or white, I'm going to say whatever the f - k I want, because no one's going before you, and if no one's coming after you, I'm just going to be the freakiest of all freaks!”

Ifs Want Black Voice White Creative West Freak Black Or White

Author:M.I.A.

“Whoever's inside is inside; whoever's out is out.”

Author:M.I.A.

“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.”

Ifs Thinking I Can Running Boring

Author:M.I.A.

“If music's a political place, I'm out.”

Author:M.I.A.

“I feel like I can't really have a comment.”

Feels I Can Comment

Author:M.I.A.

“If you're talking about coexisting and tolerance then you have to live by example, and you can't have shiny people all the time everywhere, which is what breeds that sort of thinking - this is better than this, that is better than that.”

People Thinking Tolerance Live By

Author:M.I.A.

“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.”

Author:M.I.A.

“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.”

Different Running Together Share

Author:M.I.A.

“Instead of going to war, we should put the money into arts and culture and let creative people define what Britain is.”

People Art War Culture Creative Creative People Going To War

Author:M.I.A.

“The mentality has taken over because of the way we've promoted things. It's been accepted, to live with fear, and to fear that it's going to be terrible, prepare for the worst. The meat and potato of our existence right now is influenced by what happened after 9/11 - we put our thinking into protecting borders.”

Thinking Existence Taken Worst Terrible Accepted Mentality

Author:M.I.A.

“I find the new Justin Bieber video more violent and more of an assault to my eyes and senses than what I've made.”

Author:M.I.A.

“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.”

People Thinking Grace Progressive Pot

Author:M.I.A.

“It's the only thing to do when you're in London - hang out in a taxi.”

Hanging Out Taxi

Author:M.I.A.

“I'd be very controversial if I said why, and I don't do controversial anymore. That's too passé. So last year. Being controversial is boring now.”

Boring Controversial

Author:M.I.A.

“Somebody told me that if you wake up every day and do stuff that's easy, then you're doing the wrong thing. If you wake up every day and do stuff that's really hard and you manage to get through to people, then you're doing the right thing. They might have just fooled me by telling me that, but it worked. I think that's my philosophy.”

People Thinking Philosophy Easy Wake Up Manage Right Thing Fooled Doing The Right Thing

Author:M.I.A.

“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."”

People Thinking Long Song Greek Anthem Pop Song

Author:M.I.A.

“I already feel that I am making a political statement by sticking around in music, when I am doing it so differently to everyone else.”

Feels Political Music Statements

Author:M.I.A.

“I fly like paper, get high like planes If you catch me at the border, I got visas in my name”

Ifs Names Paper Hip Hop Planes Borders Getting High Visa Catch Me

Author:M.I.A.

“Retirement: a brand new beginning! How wonderful!”

Wonderful Brands Retirement New Beginnings Brand New

Author:M.I.A.

“I just think that funerals are a lot like death itself. You can have your wishes, your plans, but at the end of the day, it's out of your control.”

Thinking Ends Wish Plans The End Of The Day Funeral If I Stay

Author:M.I.A.

“Uncomfortable silences. Why do we feel it's necessary to yak about bullshit in order to be comfortable?”

Feels Order Silence Fiction Comfortable Uncomfortable Bullshit Pulp Yaks Somebody Special

Author:M.I.A.

“Besides, isn't it more exciting when you don't have permission?”

Fiction Exciting Permission

Author:M.I.A.

“Here we are at the edge of the world, the very edge of Western civilization, and all of us are so desperate to feel something, anything, that we keep falling into each other and f*****g our way toward the end of days.”

World Way Feels Ends America Fall Modern Civilization Western Edges Desperate The End Of The Day Modern World Western Civilization Edge Of The World

Author:M.I.A.

“I am the bridge between the East and the West. I don't want to abandon one for the other.”

Want West East Bridges Abandon

Author:M.I.A.

About the Author

Born: July 18, 1975
Known for: Artist
Quotes: 88

Related Topics

People Thinking Ifs Art Feels Culture Persons Want World Creative

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Similar Authors

Kanye WestBrowse related quotes
Afrika BambaataaBrowse related quotes
Jack TatumBrowse related quotes
Bakari KitwanaBrowse related quotes
Talib KweliBrowse related quotes
Russell SimmonsBrowse related quotes
Ali Shaheed MuhammadBrowse related quotes
LeCraeBrowse related quotes
Angelina JolieBrowse related quotes
NasBrowse related quotes