M.I.A

Just make music; don't talk about politics.

— M.I.A

I feel like a mirror reflecting back everyone's perception of me.

— M.I.A

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

— M.I.A

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

— M.I.A

Everyone has that moment where they just rebel.

— M.I.A

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

— M.I.A

I don't consider myself a musician. I'm an artist.

— M.I.A

In England right now you're not good enough until you get validated.

— M.I.A

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

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…

— M.I.A

I never pigeonhole myself into any religion, but I feel it has found me. I am trying to make sense of it...…

— M.I.A

I was shot at for being a Tamil in Sri Lanka, and then, everyone was calling me a Paki in London, and…

— M.I.A

Businessmen in society are not going to be the ones that promote anything outside of money.

— M.I.A

I'm still working out my opinions - it's always a question mark. I leave loads of space open, and people don't like…

— M.I.A

I hate the idea of street art. With music, I just needed my brain and my voice, which didn't cost anything.

— M.I.A

Nike is the uniform for kids all over the world, and African design has been killed by Nike. Africans no longer want…

— M.I.A

Art is supposed to be about creativity. But the same people are the same art darlings every month, and it's a bit…

— M.I.A

I remember taking my demo to every dance person in London. People were like, 'We don't know what this is!' The first…

— M.I.A

When I first came out, I was a film student, and my mom sewed clothes. I was already doing a million things…

— M.I.A

Madonna did amazing songs. She had an amazing sense of style, without a stylist. And she was flawed, and sometimes she admitted…

— 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…

— 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…

— 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…

— M.I.A

I think when something becomes a comfortable genre, it's against what street art stood for in the beginning - breaking out of…

— M.I.A

Nowadays, [young musicians] are so quick to be like, "OK, fine, I'll take the cheque, or I'll get the stamp from XYZ,…

— M.I.A

The theme of counterfeits, of those that produce and sell them, has always been part of the culture of M.I.A. When I…

— M.I.A

My uncle was the first brown person to have a market stall on Petticoat Lane in the 1960s. He worked his way…

— M.I.A

Sri Lanka is an island off the coast of India. There's two ethnicities there; one the Sinhalese, which is the majority and…

— 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…

— M.I.A

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…

— 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…

— 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,…

— M.I.A

I feel like a mirror reflecting back everyones perception of me.

— M.I.A

Retirement: a brand new beginning! How wonderful!

— M.I.A

That's what I miss, being a real human.

— M.I.A

You have to constantly redefine who you are.

— M.I.A

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

— M.I.A

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

— M.I.A

“Maybe there's glory in all the things I'm not.”

— M.I.A

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

— M.I.A