Quotes from Grace Jones

Rock n' roll can get quite overwhelming. You can get caught up in the cycle.

I would have rebelled against parental authority, no matter what. When I was 15, I started painting my face and making my own clothes.

My mum was very glamorous, an incredible seamstress. She made up those Vogue, Givenchy and Yves St. Laurent patterns they used to sell. It was church couture, darling! Because my dad was a pastor, she could get away with more than other women. Her skirts were that bit tighter.

It's important that the sexes understand each other.

When I perform on stage I become those male bullies, those dominators from my childhood. That's probably why it's so scary, because they scared me.

I always thought that feminine, softer side was just too vulnerable to put out there, because then it's like you're opening up a door for everybody to come in, and you don't know who's going to come in that door.

More having to do whatever anybody said you had to do. I couldn't really do anything on my own. But as I got older and then came to America and then Grace became my name, it somehow freed me. All of a sudden, I can be this other person.

They used to call me Firefly when I was a little girl, and I always tried to figure out why I was being called a firefly. I was really black, black, black from the sun. After being in Jamaica for 13 years, my eyes were really beady and white, and my skin was really black. I must have really looked like a fly. My eyes looked like lights, like stars.

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

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

My mother was a champion high-jumper. My three brothers are basketball players. We've all been very athletic.

I like working until the morning, so I can see the day and then I like to go to sleep and then get up before sunset. But I love the energy of the morning.

I never do what anyone else is doing. I could walk away from music and become a farmer or do some crochet. The worst thing in life for me is to do something I'm not happy doing.

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

Disco was like the celebration of music through dance and my God! When you heard the music sometimes it was like, if you don't get up and dance, you aren't human!

I thought I'd take style to its limit... My philosophy is a belief in magic, good luck , self-confidence, and pride.

I had no childhood, really, so I imagined more than played, and that definitely led to my showbusiness image, the theatrics and the drama of my life.

I like to think of myself as a positive person. Otherwise I wouldn't have had a child.

I loved all those classic figures from the '30s and '40s... Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Humphrey Bogart, Rita Hayworth. They had such glamour and style. I loved the movies of those times too - so much attention paid to details, lights, clothing, the way the studios would develop talent.

People always like to make me seem taller than I am.

I love women, but I've never had a relationship with a woman.

I don't take the English press seriously at all because all they want is dirt... I hate them.

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

Shock always sells. You know? But you could shock in good taste.