“I am an actress first, a singer second.”

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 have just as much woman in me as I have man. It’s just a matter of channeling the energy into which way you use it.

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

Forget health clinics and gyms. Sex is the best cure. One good night of sex and your problems are gone.

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.

My husband used to shout at my mother, ‘What is wrong with your daughter? I’m married to a man.’

I’m not a rock star, I’m a soft person.

When you become such a strong personality in music, it’s hard for people to accept you as a different character.

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 wear my furs all the time. I wear like three different ones in a day.

I’ve lived long enough to feel the sway of corporations both legal and illegal. Corporations give you drugs and they prescribe and prescribe them and they can be worse for you. Whereas you have illegal drugs and that is all about moderation. You have to know your body.

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.

Prescription drugs can be even worse than illegal drugs. The only difference is the legality.

This is depression, it comes when your blocking. This is expression it comes when you’re rocking

Music has its own depths, and I let it take me where it takes me, even if it means stripping all my clothes off.

I can look at a fur and tell if it’s good or not.

People like Clyde McPhatter who came out of the black churches – like Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin – were all church singers who became great pop singers because gospel singing is very close to the blues.

The piano and the singing are two equal things to me – maybe not inseparable but very connected. You can say they are like two equal voices.

My singing, if you want to call it that is merely another medium of expression. Just an instrument I play. That’s how I see my voice.

Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” a song that was written for Simone, she confronted the band’s lead singer, Eric Burdon. “So you’re the honky,” she said, “who stole my song and got a hit out of it?

It’s not easy, though, singing upside down in a headstand on a raised platform with your unfettered breasts hitting you in the chin.

As of now they are still very young so that has come in the form of dress up, make believe and singing songs.

A wise man sings his joy in the closet of his heart.

Is there a short-eared koobish, then?’ Mmmyes …’ said J.Lo. ‘But it is technically not really a koobish. Is more alike a kind of singing pumpkin.’ We had conversations like these all the time, where I just eventually gave up.