Top 150 Jill Scott Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Don’t stop dreaming just because you had a nightmare.”

— Jill Scott

2. “Just because you have a nightmare doesn’t mean you stop dreaming.”

— Jill Scott

3. “God is ever present. He’s in every breath, in every step. He’s here, always, always.”

— Jill Scott

4. “I always wanted to be a renaissance woman, do as many things as I possibly can and hopefully do them well or don’t do them at all.”

— Jill Scott

5. “Whatever happens in my life, whether I stand up or I fall down, whatever the case, I’m going to use it in my art. Why? Because I’m an artist and I have to.”

— Jill Scott

6. “You owe it to yourself to live beautifully. And I am.”

— Jill Scott

7. “I’ve done a lot of fighting in my time, and I’m down to do some more. I don’t want to, but you know, there’s just certain things that you can’t sit down and take.”

— Jill Scott

8. “Find new treasures in yourself. Love doesn’t die. Love is unyielding. It’s going to come back. The more you love and appreciate yourself, the more prepared you are when the real thing shows up.”

— Jill Scott

9. “I like to read Octavia E. Butler’s ‘Wild Seed’ over and over again. And J. California Cooper’s ‘The Wake of the Wind.’ That one makes me cry from joy. I’ll mourn – I’ll actually mourn – and then I’ll cry from joy. She’s wonderful.”

— Jill Scott

10. “Ain’t nothing coming easily in this life. Sometimes you gotta work, you gotta grow and it gotta hurt...”

— Jill Scott

11. “I like a man who smells good. Puts on cologne; lotions his body. It keeps me wanting. I like feeling that way.”

— Jill Scott

12. “A woman is more than the sum of her parts.”

— Jill Scott

13. “I do want love. Genuine love.”

— Jill Scott

14. “Being a mom, it feels like I did something so powerful and amazing. It’s such a gigantic blessing, and a confirmation that the Creator exists. And all of that has made me feel sexier and stronger. I call it ‘lava in my spine.’”

— Jill Scott

15. “I need to find creative diversity because if I get stuck, I get unhappy.”

— Jill Scott

16. “Every community needs a rec center.”

— Jill Scott

17. “I’m a world-class people watcher. I like to watch people’s body movements, their expressions. It says so much about them.”

— Jill Scott

18. “I could hear music playing in the background of works by certain authors, like Poe and Shakespeare. And I discovered Nikki Giovanni when I was in eighth grade. Her writing has a musical energy with pulse and rhythm, almost like jazz or hip-hop.”

— Jill Scott

19. “There are black marriages that are still going strong 40 years later. You hear so many myths that there aren’t any people making it, but there are. As long as there are some, there’s hope.”

— Jill Scott

20. “For me, hair is an accoutrement. Hair is jewelry. It’s an accessory.”

— Jill Scott

21. “I need my man to be my homie.”

— Jill Scott

22. “My stepfather was a very nasty individual.”

— Jill Scott

23. “If you can’t help me grow, there’s no point with you being in my life.”

— Jill Scott

24. “In order to grow emotionally and mentally, sometimes you have to grow physically as well. I’m just trying to grow, man, and always I just want to be the best and most confident me I can be.”

— Jill Scott

25. “I just think it’s silly to be stingy with compliments. If you see someone and they strike you as beautiful in any way, why not let them know?”

— Jill Scott

26. “I was reared in a Jehovah’s Witness household. I was taught that every man should be judged by his deeds and not his color, and I firmly stand where my grandmother left me.”

— Jill Scott

27. “I am more spiritual than religious.”

— Jill Scott

28. “It’s frustrating me – that booty is gonna sag at some point. And if you allow enough people to come inside your physical space, they leave traces.”

— Jill Scott

29. “I’m excited about turning 40. I’ve been an adult for a long time, but there is a difference between being an adult and being a grown-up. I’m someone’s mummy now and I’m enjoying that. I feel as if I’m about to hit my peak.”

— Jill Scott

30. “There are repercussions to everything, even advancement and success. And I think that the repercussions to my success was the loss of my marriage.”

— Jill Scott

31. “Beauty is an understanding of what you have, and it’s forgiving yourself of what you don’t have, and appreciating all of it.”

— Jill Scott

32. “For anyone who feels they are overwhelmed by their job, or maybe they take their job too seriously or are working too hard, I say go to a safari, particularly the Okavango Delta, and just be humbled.”

— Jill Scott

33. “Seriously, in America there are more big, curvy girls than there are little girls, and men love us, too.”

— Jill Scott

34. “There’s a certain level of realness in Philly. You know, just – people are people. You know, it doesn’t matter who you are or who you think you are, you’re just a person in Philly.”

— Jill Scott

35. “People is, I think, it’s their nature – some people’s nature, in a way, to be angry or jealous or just spiteful about somebody else’s blessings.”

— Jill Scott

36. “I see myself being a great-grandmother at my great-grandson’s graduation from a school that has my name on it.”

— Jill Scott

37. “Soul music is about longevity and reaching and touching people on a human level – and that’s never going to get lost.”

— Jill Scott

38. “There’s a high school in Camden, New Jersey, I call the Jill Scott School. It’s the Camden Creative Arts High School. Those teachers and kids are so passionate about what they do, and 98 percent of the senior class went on to college.”

— Jill Scott

39. “I don’t necessarily think of myself as a feminist, but I’m a whole person. I’m not just breasts or ass or thighs – I’m a whole being! And it just seems like women aren’t necessarily striving to be the whole of themselves.”

— Jill Scott

40. “I have a few caftans just for lounging purposes. When I want to feel free, it’s the closest thing to feeling naked without being naked.”

— Jill Scott

41. “I truly have a village supporting me. My son has godmothers, godfathers, grandparents and so many others in his life who love him as much as I do. They’re there for both of us. I may not have a mate or husband, but I’m definitely not a single parent.”

— Jill Scott

42. “I just want to continue to grow, as an actor, and dig. Hopefully, one day, I’ll lose myself in a role. My only worry about that is that I just want to be able to come back home. I don’t want to get lost forever. That scares me.”

— Jill Scott

43. “I’d been told that when you first put your feet on African ground, you’ll be hit by a feeling of overwhelming understanding, like you’ve returned home and suddenly belong. Quite frankly, I didn’t feel that.”

— Jill Scott

44. “I truly loved being pregnant and feeling what was going on inside my body and watching it change. It’s difficult to recoup, but still amazing nonetheless. I would have another one.”

— Jill Scott

45. “I think, as an artist, you have to have experienced some deep turmoil, some kind of pain, because that’s what connects you with the world. That’s what makes it juicy!”

— Jill Scott

46. “Everybody’s looking for love, and you want to love somebody and be loved in return.”

— Jill Scott

47. “To be a queen of a household is a powerful thing.”

— Jill Scott

48. “We all get angry and jealous sometimes, none of us is perfect, but we should not try to be different.”

— Jill Scott

49. “I did an internship at the Ardent theatre company in Philly after dropping out of college. I was earning $165 a week building sets and cleaning the toilets. Cleaning toilets is a good way of getting in touch with your creativity. That’s when you find out if you got anything going on in your head.”

— Jill Scott

50. “The video for ‘Whatever’ is kind of a documentary in a way. It’s showing that love can last. Not just in your early 20s or your late 30s, but in your 50s, 60s and 70s. There’s an awful myth out there that when you get married, love and lovemaking fade. It’s not true.”

— Jill Scott