Rokia Traore Quotes

Quotes about:

• You can't be unique any way. Music is made from seven notes. You will always come back to something. Even if you think you are unique, you will come back to something that existed before you were doing what you are doing.

  Rokia Traore

  Unique, Thinking, Way

  Interview with Stephen M. Deusner, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2009.

  6 Copy quote

• You just have to try before thinking that you can't.

  Rokia Traore

  Thinking, Trying

  Interview with Stephen M. Deusner, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• We need self-confidence in our ability to build Africa. I trust in Mali and I trust in music.

  Rokia Traore

  Self Confidence, Needs, Mali

  16 Copy quote

• It's a great experience just to understand that finally being well known is not the most important thing.

  Rokia Traore

  Important, Well Known, Great Experiences

  Interview with Stephen M. Deusner, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• There are some things around us that are not actually useful. I didn't know that before. It's very new for me to understand. That became my way of writing: I can see also the new myself.

  Rokia Traore

  Writing, Way, Knows

  Interview with Stephen M. Deusner, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• The interesting thing for me is to put together all my influences and all my experiences I got through my traveling with my father.

  Rokia Traore

  Father, Interesting, Together

  Interview with Stephen M. Deusner, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• Going back and forth between Western Arabic and African countries clearly created the various musical backgrounds I could have and obviously influenced my professional attitude, my way of approaching both music composition and singing, particularly phrasing.

  Rokia Traore

  Country, Attitude, Musical

  4 Copy quote

• The most important thing is to be happy myself with what I am doing.

  Rokia Traore

  Important, Important Things

  Interview with Stephen M. Deusner, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• I prefer simple things - monotone melodies repeating the same things all the time. Because I think life is like that.

  Rokia Traore

  Simple, Thinking, Life Is Like

  Source: pitchfork.com

  4 Copy quote

• When you are able to make a living with your job as an artist, that means you have an audience and you have to thank this audience.

  Rokia Traore

  Jobs, Mean, Artist

  Interview with Stephen M. Deusner, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• When you have a chance to be an artist with an audience in your lifetime, you have to say thanks to your audience. That's a great thing. That's the best thing that can happen to an artist.

  Rokia Traore

  Artist, Chance, Thanks

  Interview with Stephen M. Deusner, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• Sometimes there are painters or very famous artists who start to become artists after they are dead because an audience or a public know about their art after they die.

  Rokia Traore

  Art, Sometimes, Very Famous

  Interview with Stephen M. Deusner, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• In general, in painting sometimes people like Picasso or somebody are not very well known in the beginning, sometimes they become well known just before they die, or sometimes after they have died. I think these people start to be artists after they've stopped existing.

  Rokia Traore

  Artist, Thinking, People

  Interview with Stephen M. Deusner, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• You can be a star here in Europe and not be known at all in the United States.

  Rokia Traore

  Stars, Europe, United States

  Interview with Stephen M. Deusner, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• American audiences don't react in the same way as European ones to African music because, I think, Europeans listen to this music through all the festivals that exist here.

  Rokia Traore

  Thinking, African Music, Festivals

  Interview with Stephen M. Deusner, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• I've been in contact with music since I was four or five years old through my father, because of the interest he had in music and all his musical skills. I finally managed to make that my profession.

  Rokia Traore

  Father, Years, Skills

  Interview with Stephen M. Deusner, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• An artist who doesn't have any audience is not an artist.

  Rokia Traore

  Artist, Audience

  Interview with Stephen M. Deusner, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• Everybody does music from his culture and his experiences with his culture. There are not so many people who are interested by the music coming from different countries and different cultures and trying to make music from that, from all these experiences.

  Rokia Traore

  Country, People, Trying

  Source: pitchfork.com

  11 Copy quote

• We're repeating the same things all the time; there aren't many new things happening in this life.

  Rokia Traore

  This Life, Happenings, New Things

  Interview with Stephen M. Deusner, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• I'm in a state of my life when the essential is very important to me. I don't like long songs with complicated arrangements and breaks anymore.

  Rokia Traore

  Song, Long, Important

  Interview with Stephen M. Deusner, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• I don't know if it's due to my age, that I'm older now, [but] I love the essentials. I don't like the things around us that are a kind of mirage.

  Rokia Traore

  Age, Essentials, Kind

  Interview with Stephen M. Deusner, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• Without an audience, all your dreams will not come true at all, because you need an audience to write new songs and continue to do music.

  Rokia Traore

  Dream, Song, Writing

  Source: pitchfork.com

  4 Copy quote

• For me, each time I'm on stage, each time I'm working on a new album, it's like a dream. I can't believe it's happening.

  Rokia Traore

  Dream, Believe, Albums

  Interview with Stephen M. Deusner, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• At the beginning of the tour, I arrange the live show exactly like the album, but of course from one audience to another, from one venue to another, it can become longer.

  Rokia Traore

  Albums, Shows, Venues

  Interview with Stephen M. Deusner, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• The audiences are really different in general. Even in the same country or in the same city, from one venue to another, the audiences can be totally different.

  Rokia Traore

  Country, Cities, Different

  Interview with Stephen M. Deusner, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

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