Solána Imani Rowe, better known as SZA, is an acclaimed American singer-songwriter known for her soul-stirring lyrics and unique sound.
She started creating music in the early 2010s and gained fame through her first retail release, Z (2014) and co-writing “Feeling Myself” with Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé.
Her breakthrough came with her full-length album, Ctrl (2017), which enjoyed universal acclaim, long-term chart success and multiple Grammy nominations.
SZA continued her streak with singles such as “Good Days” and “I Hate U” and the record-breaking collaboration “Kiss Me More” with Doja Cat.
Her second album, SOS (2022), shattered streaming records and cemented her status in the R&B world.
Related: Dee Snider Quotes from the American Singer & Songwriter and Marc Anthony Quotes from the American Singer & Songwriter
SZA’s contributions to music have been widely recognized, earning her an American Music Award, a Grammy, two Billboard Women in Music Awards and several other nominations.
I have collected some of the most famous SZA quotes in this article.
Best SZA Quotes
Pain plus love and time = power. ~ SZA.
I love classical jazz. ~ SZA.
Reading makes me so sleepy. Honestly, I’m a visual learner. ~ SZA.
I worry so much. Like, ‘Damn, how can I be excellent?’ But it’s a journey. ~ SZA.
It’s so hard for me to focus on things for a long time that I’m not incredibly passionate about. ~ SZA.
I want to excel at something, to follow through, to not be afraid. ~ SZA.
I make bad decisions frequently. They’re fun. ~ SZA.
I don’t have a primary doctor, a primary hairstylist, a primary anything. I don’t even have a primary address! Everything is just whenever I can find one. ~ SZA.
When I sing full voice, I get nervous because I get nasal and abrasive and a little scratchy. ~ SZA.
I think we all do: I think we wonder if we’re supposed to be here, if we’re doing the right thing, if we even want to be here. At least, I do all the time. ~ SZA.
I love folk. I love rap. SZA I was unpopular my whole life. ~ SZA.
I got a lot of crap for being named SZA but not being affiliated with Wu-Tang, and being a girl. ~ SZA.
I listen to Stevie Nicks. ~ SZA.
Listening to Alabama Shakes made me less self-conscious about my voice. ~ SZA.
Music, or the type of music that I’m writing, is very personal. ~ SZA.
How many thick black women are there singing whatever I’m singing, surrounded by rappers, but also from the suburbs? I can’t really judge someone else for judging me! ~ SZA.
Music is my form of cleansing and introspection, so I have to grow in order to accomplish it. ~ SZA.
I was a gymnast for 13 years, so I was heavy into sports. ~ SZA.
I don’t enjoy being interviewed. I feel like it exhausts a lot of my energy. I feel empty after. ~ SZA.
I use Ecoco EcoStyler gel, but the alcohol-free protein one. That’s the key. ~ SZA.
I’m very into details, so I watch movies just for the details. ~ SZA.
In the real world, I kind of, like, thrived a little bit. The things that were awkward about me at school, like being hyper passionate… I realized, ‘Oh I’m my own person, and I have my own idiosyncrasies and nuances that I don’t mind.’ ~ SZA.
Don’t get discouraged with your skin when it doesn’t do what you want it to do… Give it some time. That’s the only way to get to know yourself. ~ SZA.
I have an abundant amount of love in my life, and I’m grateful for that. ~ SZA.
I just make music however I feel and pray that it connects, and if it does, I’m super thankful. I think genres are more for other people, not for yourself. ~ SZA.
Top SZA Quotes
When you’re, like, 190 pounds, dark-skinned, and a new artist that no one really cares about, people don’t really take the time to make you look beautiful. ~ SZA.
My mom didn’t let me eat sugar or candy until I was older. ~ SZA.
I wasn’t one of those girls who sang at church. ~ SZA.
I was a funky kid. ~ SZA.
I love the comparison with Aaliyah and Timbaland, because Aaliyah is a legend, and there is a large cinematic feel to Timbaland’s sound, but what I do is different. ~ SZA.
I love Modest Mouse. ~ SZA.
I don’t listen to my music if I’m not making it. ~ SZA.
I don’t like to shop. It creates so much anxiety. ~ SZA.
I used to be very figurative and also just kind of scared to talk about the way I felt in a literal way. ~ SZA.
I’m a Scorpio with a Pisces moon. I am very critical of myself. I’m actually way less critical of others than I am of myself. I’m in my own head a lot. It’s hard and really discouraging. ~ SZA.
Control is not real, and I’m really understanding that every day. It’s about the acceptance of relinquishing control that makes it powerful for you. ~ SZA.
Sugar makes me feel crazy – like, makes my body hurt kind of a thing. I don’t really eat fruit because it has a lot of sugar. I try not to eat a lot of red meat, but every now and again, I feel like I need iron or something – something that I’m missing. ~ SZA.
I try to think of myself as a chic fishing grandpa aesthetically. ~ SZA.
I wasn’t popular in high school; I had no friends. ~ SZA.
You can take care of your body, and it will low-key show you respect in turn. ~ SZA.
I love empowering women. I think it’s crazy: if you ever try to belittle women, you’re playing yourself – I ride with whoever rides with me. ~ SZA.
I don’t want to speak negativity into existence. ~ SZA.
Biochemical interactions are very interesting to me. ~ SZA.
I feel like every outfit I have ever planned ahead is trash. ~ SZA.
I’ve always loved playing with hair. I used to want dreads like Lauryn Hill, but my mom wouldn’t let me. ~ SZA.
When I think of Afropunk, I think of the best of the best. I think of, like, D’Angelo. ~ SZA.
I just think I have too much anxiety to listen to music. Sometimes it feels like noise, and sometimes it’s so affecting that I can’t recover from it. ~ SZA.
I don’t feel ashamed to be loud, which is an argument I’ve had with lots of men, who thought I was too sassy and unladylike. ~ SZA.
I have a really strong gluten allergy, and I’m pretty lactose-intolerant, like, in a big way, but I love cheese. ~ SZA.
Popular SZA Quotes
As long as you’re being honest and there’s intention in what you’re doing, then I think that energy permeates your field and becomes like a homing signal for other people with like energies. ~ SZA.
In one way, I want to heal people. ~ SZA.
My anxiety stems from my lack of control no matter what. ~ SZA.
I learned everything the hard way – like, literally, everything. I know that God does that to people that he has lessons for. I just wish that I had learned less extreme lessons. ~ SZA.
I did some work on Beyonce and Nick Minaj’s ‘Feeling Myself.’ ~ SZA.
So many people meet and become friends at my shows that didn’t know each other before. ~ SZA.
I drink a lot of water. ~ SZA.
I think music is honest and will make you do honest things. ~ SZA.
I was quiet in high school and relatively unpopular, so being noticed is not something that I’m used to. ~ SZA.
I don’t have any control over what actually happens except for that I have full control over my will for myself, my intention, and why I’m there. That’s all that matters. ~ SZA.
I love when things that I’m involved in really matter and when people like me back and don’t just think I’m corny. ~ SZA.
It’s interesting to all of a sudden be considered valuable. ~ SZA.
I love cuffing season. It’s a very inspiring season for those who want to be inspired. ~ SZA.
On Halloween, because we don’t celebrate it, my dad would drive me somewhere, anywhere different. Like Little Italy in New York to walk around and teach me all about the food and culture. ~ SZA.
I’ve been known to wear pajamas onstage for the sole reason of wanting to make sure I’m free enough to execute new things vocally onstage and give my best performance possible. ~ SZA.
It starts with trusting yourself, even if people are telling you you’re too young to trust yourself. ~ SZA.
Famous SZA Quotes
When I just decided to be myself, that’s when you get questions like, ‘How do you feel about feminism?’ And I have no idea; this is just when I decide what I’m not tolerating and what I genuinely think and a little bit in between. ~ SZA.
I feel good being a black woman; I’ve always felt good. ~ SZA.
I’ve fried my hair off. I’ve shaved my hair off. I’ve done it all. ~ SZA.
I love Obama, and I just want to reiterate it again to everyone from every hilltop and every mountain: I love him! ~ SZA.
I do a lot of strange things. ~ SZA.
I don’t think I’m inherently feminist. I think the universe wants me to be feminist, and I think I resonate with that. I think it just chose me to be this female energy… thing. And I’m very drawn to female energy, but I don’t really have any prerequisites in feminism. I just roll with it. ~ SZA.
I always used to be like, ‘I don’t need to meditate.’ And it’s not true. ~ SZA.
I definitely get inspiration from the ‘gram. I mean, Instagram is Google, essentially. I love looking at pictures of beautiful women. ~ SZA.
My mom was an executive at AT&T, a global account lady. I have no idea what she did. I just know she was never home and speaks several languages. ~ SZA.
I don’t have a background in music… and I have a short attention span. If you put me in the studio every day, I’m gonna get lost. ~ SZA.
I feel like when you say ‘activist,’ you have to have so much clarity, and I don’t always necessarily have so much clarity on how I want to help others, I just have this weird, deep urge to help other people. I’m trying to let God guide my body and use it as whatever kind of vehicle or vessel it needs to be. ~ SZA.
I was raised orthodox Muslim. Very sheltered, very conservative. ~ SZA.
My parents wanted me to go to school. ~ SZA.
I love food, so having a lot of food allergies now and just having a really sensitive body, it forces me to be very mindful and conscious and eat when I’m hungry, not just when I’m bored, and just really slow down. Everything in moderation. ~ SZA.
We’re changing little girls’ lives across the world, and we didn’t even know what we were doing when we started. ~ SZA.
My mom is a Pan-Africanist. My dad is still Orthodox Sunni Muslim, but he’s super fun. He worked in television for years. He was a Black Panther. ~ SZA.
My music is touching people in whatever spaces they need to be touched in. ~ SZA.
I live in my imagination, so sometimes movies help me get lost. I feel like I’m in it. ~ SZA.
I don’t listen to my own music, so to me, it’s awesome that people really like it. I was afraid that it wouldn’t connect with everyone. I’m more appreciative than anything. ~ SZA.
People grapple with labeling me as hip-hop, R&B, or pop, and it’s interesting to me. I’m just making music. ~ SZA.
Especially when I’m nervous, my mind is running a mile a minute. My ADHD speaks for me before I can speak for me. ~ SZA.
I’m a visual learner, so film is a huge inspiration to me. ~ SZA.
My parents are really conservative. My dad is Muslim, and my mom is the most conservative woman you’ve ever met. They’re very aristocratic in the most quaint suburban way. ~ SZA.
Oh, Instagram stresses me out on a very deep level! ~ SZA.
I always wanted to be a Klingon princess. They were so pretty, and their hair was fire. My hair is Klingon, I feel like. ~ SZA.
Wearing a hijab never made me feel any more conservative – it made me feel safe. Then, after 9/11, I became the butt of a joke on the playground, so I stopped wearing it. Kids can be really cruel when you’re the only black girl in your Girl Scout troop. ~ SZA.
I went through this phase of Spandex, high heels, and fur coats when I was my late teens and early twenties; before then, I lived in overalls and baggy T-shirts. ~ SZA.
SZA Lyrics
How you want me when you got a girl? ~ The Weekend.
Winter, I can’t stand this, snow is falling all on me. ~ Prom.
I’m never going back, never going back, you can’t make me. ~ Broken Clocks.
All that I’ve got, pieces and pages. ~ Broken Clocks.
All the while, I’ll await my armored fate with a smile. ~ Good Days.
I belong to nobody. ~ Go Gina.
Keep your feet firmly planted in the sky. ~ Omega.
Promise to get a little better as I get older. ~ Prom.
Good day in my mind, safe to take a step out, get some air now, let your edge out. ~ Good Days.
Am I all that I pretend to be? ~ Green Mile.
Freedom ain’t real, who’s sold you that lie? ~ Ur.
Honesty hurts when you’re gettin’ older ~ 20 Something.
Hopping through poppy fields, dodging evil witches. ~ Prom.
I just need space to do my thing ~ Decisions.
Only loving energy please, don’t surround me if you covet ~ Ms. Nomad.
Got a shift at 10 a.m., got a dip at 10 p.m., gotta get that cash. ~ Broken Clocks.
My narcissism keeps me level. ~ Kismet.
Run fast from my day job. ~ Broken Clocks.
I could be your supermodel. ~ Supermodel.
Gotta get right, tryna free my mind before the end of the world. ~ Good Days.
Can’t beat ‘em, just join the party. ~ Broken Clocks.
Keep patience on the left side of your brain. ~ The Odyssey.
I’ve paid enough of petty dues, I’ve heard enough of sh*tty news. ~ Broken Clocks.
How could it be? 20 something, all alone still. ~ 20 Something
Sit back and relax your mind. ~ Doves in the Wind.
Need you for my sanity. ~ Garden (Say It Like Dat).
Goddess of Forbidden Love, I am she. ~ Ice Moon.
All that’s for real is forever. ~ RB SLS
So these were the 125 top SZA quotes and lyrics on music and life.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Rick Rubin quotes and Louis Zamperini quotes.
