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" John Legend is a nickname that some friends started calling me, and it kind of grew into my stage name. "

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" I remember when I first came out as an artist, back in 2004 or 2005, the record label used to take me to all the radio stations and just have me sit in, like, their lunchroom or their conference room, and play for the whole staff. Just to introduce them to me so they would play my records. "

" I love to make fried chicken. "

" My first attempt at a kiss was in fifth grade, but it didn't go so well. Later, I used Boyz II Men and Jodeci songs to come on to girls. I had more success. "

" In terms of the technology I use the most, it's probably a tie between my Blackberry and my MacBook Pro laptop. That's how I communicate with the rest of the world and how I handle all the business I have to handle. "

" I'm trying to be me and embrace all the parts of me that have grown up, listened to more music and soaked up more influences. "

" I'm honestly not a great gift giver. I could give better - my girlfriends have always complained about that. "

" John legend is a nickname that somebody started calling me a while ago and part of it is 'cos I sound like an old man when I sing. "

" Experience is a great teacher. "

" To have the chance to see your music be elevated and to have almost universally positive response to that music, makes me feel better every day. I feel more confident and inspired, and that's fun. "

" I'm probably tougher on myself than I used to be. I'll revise my lyrics more. Part of that is working with the right people and producers who will say, 'How can you make that better?' Allowing yourself to collaborate with people will push you toward transcendence. "

" I signed with Kanye back in 2003, and at that time, 'The College Dropout' hadn't even come out, so he was still relatively unknown compared to where he is now. He wasn't a household name; people were still calling him 'Kane.' "

" As a young black boy, it made me proud to see black leaders that did something amazing and made the world change. "

" I was a busy kid in high school - a little bit of an overachiever, I guess. Prom king was kind of silly, but the rest of the stuff was important to me. "

" There are autobiographical elements to the albums, and when I write, I always reference my own life as well as other things, so I'm just like any novelist or any fiction writer who tells stories. "

" Hip-hop is one of the most free art forms there is. There's so many sounds you can use, so many things you can bring in. You never know, man. I bet years ago people would've never said they would hear me with Rick Ross, and we did four classic songs together. "

" The most I ever spent on technology is building a studio - I built one at home in Los Angeles. I can't tell you how much exactly, but the whole process is very expensive. "

" The best training is to play by ear: trial by fire. "

" Soul is about authenticity. Soul is about finding the things in your life that are real and pure. "

" The prison-industrial complex, poverty, and the school system has more effect on a young black male in America than Jay-Z does, by far. And that's not a diss to Jay-Z. The crime rate in the black community was high before hip hop. Rapping about it is just a reflection of the life a lot of people are living. "

" Hip hop is usually a bunch of guys talking to a bunch of guys, in my experience. It's homosocial, not homosexual, in that it's almost always all one gender in a room where it's being created. That locker-room environment has an impact on the language. I think the music suffers 'cause it allows an almost cartoonish level of misogyny. "

" There's a certain confidence that comes with being sure about the way the world works. "

" As a nation - and as a world - we need more truth. "

" The Obamas have been a great example for the country, and I think people are getting a bit nostalgic for that now when they see what some of the alternatives might be. "

" In the 1970s, for all the Stevie Wonders, I'm sure there were five artists that were making forgettable music. "

" Well, what's interesting, I try not to think about the radio when I'm writing a song. I want people to love the song, and that means it might not be exactly thinking about the radio, but it's thinking about your audience and saying, 'I want people to like this song after it's done.' "

" I don't feel like that many musicians are competitive with each other. "

" London is a good fashion city. They're a little more daring. There's the element of the aristocracy, which is always interesting. "

" Well, I was always a bit of a political junkie. Even as a kid I would read biographies of presidents and of civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King and Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington. "

" You know, my family is very musical, I was surrounded by it. And from four years old I was the one that asked my mother could I take piano lessons. "

" I know how it feels to be a singer who wants to get discovered. "