Quotes from Natalie Cole

I think we need to be sexy and kind of mysterious and still pretty and beautiful. I like to hear that when a man sings. I don't really want to hear about taking my clothes off.

By the time I approached my forties, I had the self-assurance to approach all the genres I love so deeply: R & B, rock, jazz, and pop.

The medication I had to take was a form of chemotherapy. You feel like death every day. No appetite. No energy. But the treatment worked. It cured my liver 80 per cent but compromised my kidneys.

If you don't shop smart, you get a little trendy.

I love what I do so much. I just keep going. Not much can bring me down.

If you don't have dialysis, absolutely, you will die. Dialysis is actually keeping me alive.

I like Kelly Rowland, I think that she's great. It's hard to come out of the group of Destiny's Child and still kick some butt.

I like to grow and experiment, and as an artist, it's about kicking the bar up a little.

I was pretty bad. When I first was diagnosed with kidney failure, my function - the function of my kidney was less than 8 percent.

A lot of people want to donate a kidney, but they're not in a position to because they have health issues of their own, and a lot of people need them. That's why the list is long and it takes a long time.

I never got to make that transition from little girl to young woman... and that really screws you up.

I think that talented people really do have insecurities, and that is one of the things that kind of motivates them, because that's one thing they know they're good at. And when they're up on that stage, you can do no wrong. The audience is yours; they're there to see you.

People say I look younger than the music I'm doing just because the songs are older. Hopefully I can keep my youthful look!

My first trip to Mexico was with my dad because of his Spanish records. That was back in 1958. I found a picture of me when I was eight dressed as a little senorita.

I was pretty young, but because of that first record, 'Cole Espanol,' we took our first trip - well, my first trip - to Mexico.

I've always been an extremist. Some of us have very addictive personalities, and for some of us, that mechanism gets tripped up. Mine certainly did. I'm not cured. You never are. The recovery is a day-to-day process.

It's the subtleties of a ballad that truly make it beautiful - and it's all in the way you present it to the listener.

You shouldn't have regrets. I'd say instead that I've learned a lot of lessons. Yes, I could have handled some things better. But they've also made me who I am today.

Losing people is dark, but some things you just have to accept.

I still love recording and still love the stage, but like my dad, I have the most fun when I am in front of that glorious orchestra or that kick-butt big band.

I have been on dialysis in Istanbul, Milan, Indonesia, Manila, London. It's - it's amazing.

As miserable as I was, once I started singing, I felt better.

Like my father, I don't want to see anyone mistreated, anything like that. I'm very racial-conscious because my father had a lot of, you know, challenges in the area of race. I'm very sensitive to that kind of issue.

My idols are Janis Joplin and Annie Lennox, who are neither of them from the typical pop culture.