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" You have to constantly redefine who you are. "
M.I.A.
You
Redefine
Constantly
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" I don't consider myself a musician. I'm an artist. "
M.I.A.
Artist
Myself
Musician
" As an artist, you want to play around with mediums and see if you can get the point across in different way. "
M.I.A.
Way
Artist
Want
" I am the bridge between the East and the West. I don't want to abandon one for the other. "
M.I.A.
Bridge
I Am
West
" In India, you see the way they embrace color in the culture - it's very celebratory of the existence of color. There's no rule of what color belongs together or doesn't belong together. They're not precious about it. It's very full-on. "
M.I.A.
You
Together
Color
" Me, it was always about being able to bounce around to where I wanna be. Like, with 'Arular,' people always say it's so political, but I think 50 per cent of the album is not very political at all. It's just really a shouty, shouty girl thing. "
M.I.A.
Political
Think
Girl
" 'Paper Planes' was an accident. It wasn't a song we made for the masses. It took two years to get popular, and there were many fights about censoring the gunshot sounds. "
M.I.A.
Song
Paper
Masses
" It's a bit weird, because I don't really know what people expect or think being political is; I just don't get it. What am I supposed to do as a pop star-stroke-revolutionary? Get up and put my balaclava on, go to the grocery store and then invent some Google viruses, and then go to rob a bank to fund my revolution on YouTube? "
M.I.A.
People
Revolution
Political
" I'm just so grateful for the 10 years that I had in Sri Lanka when it was in the middle of a war and I was getting shot at, because now and again I remember glimpses of those times, and I just go, 'Wow, I'll never, ever see that again in my life. And I'm never gonna feel that, and I'm never gonna feel for a human being like that.' "
M.I.A.
My Life
Remember
War
" I don't think immigrants are that threatening to society at all. They're just happy they've survived some war somewhere. "
M.I.A.
Immigrants
Think
Society
" I never pigeonhole myself into any religion, but I feel it has found me. I am trying to make sense of it... the essence of the Mathangi concept. "
M.I.A.
Myself
Religion
Trying
" I don't understand why people make me want to make music that's a join-the-dots thing by numbers. I find it really difficult when people say, 'Aw, you should have made a really big hip hop record, that would have been really good for you' or, 'You should have made a song like Lily Allen, that would have been so great.' "
M.I.A.
People
Good
Great
" My uncle was the first brown person to have a market stall on Petticoat Lane in the 1960s. He worked his way up from the street. He was homeless, but eventually he got a car so he could sell from the boot. And by the 1980s, he was a millionaire wholesaling to companies like Topshop. So in a way, fashion put me in England. "
M.I.A.
Car
Me
Uncle
" At first, I found the music I was making really hard to find a home for. I felt like my attitude was really British, but not the actual sounds I was making. Back in 2003, when I made 'Galang,' there were no clubs that had an 'anything and everything' attitude. "
M.I.A.
Find
Music
Home
" In New York, everyone's really neurotic and talks about themselves all the time. "
M.I.A.
Really
New
New York
" My father had no influence on my political beliefs, and to imply otherwise is wrong and irresponsible. "
M.I.A.
Father
Had
Wrong
" When I started off in England, HMV or Tower Records would come to meetings and be, like, 'We just don't know what this genre is.' I don't really fit in between Rihanna and Beyonce. "
M.I.A.
Started
Meetings
Tower
" I remember taking my demo to every dance person in London. People were like, 'We don't know what this is!' The first people to champion me were a club in Manchester. "
M.I.A.
Remember
Me
People
" Before the Greeks were the Tamils. The Tamils are one of the oldest civilizations that's still surviving. "
M.I.A.
Surviving
Still
Oldest
" I was part of the generation that pushed the Internet. In fact, I broke as an artist in the U.S.A. because of the Internet. "
M.I.A.
Generation
Part
Artist
" I don't support terrorism and never have. As a Sri Lankan that fled war and bombings, my music is the voice of the civilian refugee. "
M.I.A.
War
Terrorism
Music
" Madonna did amazing songs. She had an amazing sense of style, without a stylist. And she was flawed, and sometimes she admitted it. I'll fight the fight for Madonna. I think she should send me some chocolates or something to thank me. "
M.I.A.
Style
Fight
Me
" The theme of counterfeits, of those that produce and sell them, has always been part of the culture of M.I.A. When I was contacted by Versace, it seemed a great idea to invert the circle. Versace's designs have always been copied; now it's Versace that copies the copies, so those that copy must copy the copies. So this will continue. "
M.I.A.
Copy
Always
Great
" Matangi's mantra is aim, which is MIA backwards. She fights for freedom of speech and stands for truth, and lives in the ghetto because her dad was the first person in Hindu mythology who came from the 'hood, but had gained enlightenment through not being a Brahmin. "
M.I.A.
Hood
Freedom
Freedom Of Speech
" I feel like people either love me or hate me, which is good, because that was the point of what I do. The point of M.I.A. is to be - it's either to be loved or hated. At least you evoke that much of a strong opinion about music. "
M.I.A.
Music
Strong
Hate
" I have no ties to my dad. I had no communications with him; it didn't shape who I am or anything like that. I'm actually a product of my mom. "
M.I.A.
Product
Shape
Him
" The first 10 years of my life, I lived as 'Matangi.' When I came to England in '86, my first week of school was terrible because I would put my hand up to answer things, and no one would choose me because they couldn't say my name. My auntie came from Europe to visit us, and she was like, 'Just call yourself something else.' "
M.I.A.
Me
Life
My Life
" I don't like the idea of spirituality done the way it's done. The only way I could understand it was through creativity, not by going to an Ashram, or finding a guru or joining a temple. I made work out of it. "
M.I.A.
Way
Done
Creativity
" When we moved to England in 1986, I was ten years old and I didn't know anything about punk or hip hop. The only words I knew in English were 'dance' and 'Michael Jackson.' We got put in a flat in Mitchum, and the council gave us second hand furniture, second hand clothes and a second hand radio that I took to bed with me every night. "
M.I.A.
Dance
Words
Night
" I was shot at for being a Tamil in Sri Lanka, and then, everyone was calling me a Paki in London, and I'm not even Pakistani. "
M.I.A.
Me
Shot
London
" Basically, when I went to school in Sri Lanka from age five onward, the classes there were sometimes sorted into a hierarchy of your skin tone. So the fairer-skinned kids sat at the front row, and the darker-skinned kids sat at the back by the poor ones who played out in the street all day long. "
M.I.A.
Long
Street
Skin