Grace Jones
Listen to my advice; I have some experience. In a way, it is me being a teacher, which is what I wanted to be. I still feel I could go into teaching. What is teaching but passing on your knowledge to those who are at the beginning? Some people are born with that gift.Collection: Knowledge
I like to think of myself as a positive person. Otherwise I wouldn't have had a child.Collection: Positive
If people think I'm angry, I don't want to burst anybody's bubble. I like sometimes for people to be afraid of me. But it's not really anger; it's discipline.Collection: Anger
I believe in individuality, that everybody is special, and it's up to them to find that quality and let it live.
Models are there to look like mannequins, not like real people. Art and illusion are supposed to be fantasy.
I just go with the flow, I follow the yellow brick road. I don't know where it's going to lead me, but I follow it.
I only move forwards, never backwards, darling.
We're not perfect; we all have things that people might not like to see, and I like to show my faults.
For me, a diva is like the great opera singer, the great film star - out of reach, in their own world, with a real gift for invention: attention-demanding performance artists with a flamboyant, compelling sense of their own importance so special and inimitable it verges on the alien.
One creates oneself.
Hiding, secrets, and not being able to be yourself is one of the worst things ever for a person. It gives you low self-esteem. You never get to reach that peak in your life. You should always be able to be yourself and be proud of yourself.
I go feminine, I go masculine. I am both, actually. I think the male side is a bit stronger in me, and I have to tone it down sometimes. I'm not like a normal woman, that's for sure.
Shock always sells. You know? But you could shock in good taste.
Religion has stayed with me even though I rebelled.
Everyone has to make their own decisions. I still believe in that. You just have to be able to accept the consequences without complaining.
I like conflicts. I love competition. I like discovering things for myself. It's a childlike characteristic, actually. But that gives you a certain amount of power, and people are intimidated by that.
Be like Sasha Fierce. Be like Miley Cyrus. Be like Rihanna. Be like Lady Gaga. Be like Rita Ora and Sia. Be like Madonna. I cannot be like them, except to the extent that they are already being like me.
It was very painful combing my hair. My grand-uncle was a Pentecostal bishop, and he was very strict: our hair couldn't be permed or straightened. So I just cut it all off.
Normally, I stay away from politics - unless I'm going to run for president.
Some people are both genders. I think you just come out the way you come out, and you have to embrace it honestly.
I like dressing like a guy. I love it. When I was modeling I used to do pictures where I would dress up like my little brother. No makeup, and I looked like a boy.
When I was modelling, I spent half my life staring at thousands of perfect reflections. It got to a stage where I was losing all sense of reality - so after I quit modelling, I took all the mirrors out of my house.
I was the only black girl at my junior high school. I had an afro, a Jamaican accent, I looked really old.
There is some Eighties music that is just timeless. The melodies, the lyrics... I called it church. Church in club. You can shout and dance. The best of the Eighties was club church.
You had to wear a hat to go to church. We weren't allowed to straighten our hair. We couldn't wear jewellery, nail polish, open backed shoes, skirts above the knee... trousers were forbidden because male apparel on a female was not godly.
Sometimes we'd have to climb a tree and pick our own whips to be disciplined with. When you had to pick your own whip, you knew you were in for it.
Now when I enter a carriage, it almost empties. But there's always one brave enough to stay.
Use, don't abuse.
I like to isolate myself when I work because I end up losing my voice by doing interviews all day.
My mother was a champion high-jumper. My three brothers are basketball players. We've all been very athletic.
I would have rebelled against parental authority, no matter what. When I was 15, I started painting my face and making my own clothes.
Women and men grow up with both sexes. Our mothers and fathers mean a lot to us, so it's just a question of finding a balance between their influences. I've found mine. And it tends to be more on the male side. I mean male side the way we understand it in the West.
I never thought I was going to be a singer. That was an accident.
I don't think 'pop' should mean that you had no talent.
Most performers take themselves too seriously. They forget there is a difference between the characters they play on the screen or stage and themselves, but the public doesn't forget there is a difference. They see how silly it is if you try to be the same person all the time.
I loved all those classic figures from the '30s and '40s... Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Humphrey Bogart, Rita Hayworth. They had such glamour and style. I loved the movies of those times too - so much attention paid to details, lights, clothing, the way the studios would develop talent.
When you become such a strong personality in music, it's hard for people to accept you as a different character.
I came from a very strict background, and didn't hear any Jamaican music when I was growing up.
My husband used to shout at my mother, 'What is wrong with your daughter? I'm married to a man.'
I never do what anyone else is doing. I could walk away from music and become a farmer or do some crochet. The worst thing in life for me is to do something I'm not happy doing.
I've turned down millions of dollars to go on reality TV. It's an absolute no-go.
I always thought that feminine, softer side was just too vulnerable to put out there, because then it's like you're opening up a door for everybody to come in, and you don't know who's going to come in that door.
Growing up in Jamaica, the Pentecostal church wasn't that fiery thing you might think. It was very British, very proper. Hymns. No dancing. Very quiet. Very fundamental.
When I perform on stage I become those male bullies, those dominators from my childhood. That's probably why it's so scary, because they scared me.
When I started modelling, I'd raise my arms and it was all muscle and all the other models had nothing. Really, everybody thought I was a man. I don't have to do much to have muscles. It's just genetic.
I don't like people who hide things. We're not perfect, we all have things that people might not like to see, and I like to show my faults.
I love women, but I've never had a relationship with a woman.
I'm not as impatient as I used to be. I used to hit people if I didn't like what they were saying. Just lash out. 'Bam - shut up! Hahahah!' I was terrible.
I've had more misrepresentations than I can handle, and people have told the wickedest lies about me. A lot of them have taken their frustrations out on me, and I don't like that because it can wound. Not necessarily me, but those around me. Journalists can be so bad.
I don't take the English press seriously at all because all they want is dirt... I hate them.