A biography for Rita Marleyhasn’t been written yet.
“It's a natural thing, Jamaican men have a thing where they want more than one woman, and more than one pickney.”
“Bob is a normal man, just like any other man.”
“So what that he had children with other women? He was always truthful, he always told me when another child was on the way. He would even bring the babies to me when they were born, and sometimes I would even bring them up myself.”
“Love is the main ingredient. If you don't love, you can't love, you can't do good things.”
“We stand for more than just getting the cash and running out. This family is recognized by millions of people worldwide; we have something to stand for, and we have always thought there were more important things than money.”
“Sometimes I'm in Boston or Washington or Chicago and think I'm in Jamaica because I hear more reggae on the radio in these places than in Kingston!”
“After a stage in our marriage, me and Bob had passed being husband and wife... We came to be brother and sister and I had to accept his other sweethearts and the children they gave him.”
“As Bob Marley says, 'We must carry on.' So he has left us a legacy of music to carry on for generations and generations into generations.”
“Whatever time we're passing through, there will always be music.”
“What Bob and I had was something special that God ordained. Ours was more than a husband-and-wife relationship, it was as if we had to do something for our people, to become a symbol for our time, and that feeling is still going on no matter what.”
“I must make my own way, and when I'm into things is when I do them best. If I'm not ready to perform and I do anyway, it's like feeding the people poison.”
“It has always been the wish of Bob Marley to return to Ethiopia and become a Rastafarian.”
“Being able to express myself gave me a sense of relief.”
“Bob felt everything that happened around him, and he put that reality into his music. And those things are still happening, which is why his music endures. It is music that still has meaning in people's lives. And you can dance to it.”
“Can you imagine he went to rest at the age of 36, and 30 years after he's still coming out with music for your listening pleasure? Not only for your dancing pleasure, but for learning at the same time. Because Bob Marley music teaches.”
“I suffered years of criticism. But there was a point in my life where I had to stand up and say: 'I don't care what anybody says about me. I have to stand up for my family, for the four children I had with Bob and the eight he had with other women.'”
“I don't want to be labeled a star, or billed as a star. I'm a messenger, really, and when I get work to do, I have to do it.”
“I have heard people giving different testimonies about what the music has done for them, for their children, for their life, for their marriages. It's a strength to people.”