A biography for Little Richardhasn’t been written yet.
“When you sit down and think about what rock 'n' roll music really is, then you have to change that question. Played up-tempo, you call it rock 'n' roll; at a regular tempo, you call it rhythm and blues.”
“Black people lived right by the railroad tracks, and the train would shake their houses at night. I would hear it as a boy, and I thought: I'm gonna make a song that sounds like that.”
“I'm a conductor of revivals. The only minister in the whole package. Little Richard, the evangelist.”
“But when I went on the stage to do a show, I would put on makeup because I felt that it enhanced my act; it drew attention to what I was doing.”
“God is omnipotent, He is omniscient, and He is ever present.”
“Rock 'n' roll offered me a platform to speak what I felt. It also offered me a platform to support my mama and my brothers and sisters - twelve children.”
“I don't think a woman has to act like a man to show that she has strength.”
“To me, true rock 'n' roll has a lot of bottom in it.”
“I let people know that it was all right to do the kinds of things I did.”
“If I had my life to live over, I would want to be a man.”
“Plus I love Tanya Tucker and I love country music.”
“I look back on my life, comin' out of Macon, Georgia - I never thought I'd be a superstar, a living legend. I never heard of no rock and roll in my life.”
“But I'm a rock 'n' roll singer; that's my livelihood, my occupation.”
“I am the architect of rock n' roll. I have to be a fan of all its forms.”
“I'm here to sing.”
“I love God, and I'm a follower.”
“And I don't get down on nobody else for doing whatever else they do. To each his own.”
“But I was singing loud, and most singers weren't singing loud.”
“Now they have banging guitar and no bass and call it rock, but that's not what I call rock.”
“But men are so full of greed today, they'll sell anything for a little piece of money.”