Grace Jones

“I like to isolate myself when I work because I end up losing my voice by doing interviews all day.”

“Human beings should stick together. Honestly, if I see a red-haired person with blue eyes now, I say, 'Is your granny black?'”

“I'm not a rock star; I'm a soft person.”

“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.”

“I've changed. I'm not worried about what people think, because I think people think what they want to think anyway.”

“Normally, I stay away from politics - unless I'm going to run for president.”

“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.”

“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.”

“My brother used to get beaten up all the time because he was very effeminate.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“In the Seventies and Eighties we all had our fun, and now and then we went really too far. But, ultimately, it required a certain amount of clear thinking, a lot of hard work and good make-up to be accepted as a freak.”

“I was born into a very religious family where everything was about setting the right example for the community and having to obey orders blindly. I felt that everyone was growing up in the world, except me. This is probably one of the reasons why I had such a rebellious attitude towards any form of authority.”

“I've turned down millions of dollars to go on reality TV. It's an absolute no-go.”

“Now when I enter a carriage, it almost empties. But there's always one brave enough to stay.”

“It's the nature of man to give and receive - to be man and woman, all in one.”

“I always had to mask my emotions. I could never show that I missed my mom or my dad, especially when they moved to America. My grandparents were tough. I was not allowed to receive letters that had not been read before. Everything was controlled - everything!”

“We're not perfect; we all have things that people might not like to see, and I like to show my faults.”

“I believe in individuality, that everybody is special, and it's up to them to find that quality and let it live.”