Grace Jones quotes:

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.

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.

Everyone has to make their own decisions. I still believe in that. You just have to be able to accept the consequences without complaining.

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

I like dressing like a guy. I love it. When I was modeling I used to do pictures where I would dress up like my little brother. No makeup and I looked like a boy.

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.

It was very painful combing my hair. My grand-uncle was a Pentecostal bishop, and he was very strict: our hair couldn't be permed or straightened. So I just cut it all off.

I like to isolate myself when I work because I end up losing my voice by doing interviews all day.

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

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.

I don't like people who hide things. We're not perfect, we all have things that people might not like to see, and I like to show my faults.

You can't expect your children to be perfect.

My dad's family were political and he was always a theatrical creature, whereas my mum is really musical and her father was the touring pianist with Nat King Cole. My family was an explosive mixture of politics, religion and music - no wonder I turned out how I did.

I came from a very strict background, and didn't hear any Jamaican music when I was growing up.

I was skinny as a rail and had high cheekbones and a very interesting face - or so I was told.

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

There're lots of musicians in my family, too. My mother sings incredibly well. I've got to make a record with my mother's voice on it. She sings a lyric soprano. We do the opposite. I'm a baritone. She's a star singer in her church. She always does her solo.

Whatever; bling always has something to hide.

I didn't think I had a voice at all, and I still think of myself as an interpreter of songs more than a singer. I thought it was too deep; people thought I was a man. I had a very strong Jamaican accent, too; the accent really messed me up for auditions.

We're not perfect; we all have things that people might not like to see, and I like to show my faults.

Women and men grow up with both sexes. Our mothers and fathers mean a lot to us, so it's just a question of finding a balance between their influences. I've found mine. And it tends to be more on the male side. I mean male side the way we understand it in the West.

I don't like people who hide things.

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 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.

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'm too vain, one of my biggest sins, but it saved me; I can see what excess does.

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.

One creates oneself.

I believe in having certain releases, certain outlets. One has to indulge. If you don't indulge, you don't live -might as well be dead. I believe in indulging as a user and not as an abuser.

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

My father would have been made a bishop much earlier than he was had it not been for me and my image.

I don't collaborate. You're born alone, you die alone, you get on stage alone.

I believe in individuality, that everybody is special, and it's up to them to find that quality and let it live.

I was the only black girl at my junior high school. I had an afro, a Jamaican accent, I looked really old.

I'm not as impatient as I used to be. I used to hit people if I didn't like what they were saying. Just lash out. 'Bam - shut up! Hahahah!' I was terrible.

I go feminine, I go masculine. I am both, actually. I think the male side is a bit stronger in me, and I have to tone it down sometimes. I'm not like a normal woman, that's for sure.

Models are there to look like mannequins, not like real people. Art and illusion are supposed to be fantasy.

I don't think 'pop' should mean that you had no talent.

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

Most performers take themselves too seriously. They forget there is a difference between the characters they play on the screen or stage and themselves, but the public doesn't forget there is a difference. They see how silly it is if you try to be the same person all the time.

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

...it's ridiculous for a woman to say that she's not attracted to other women. That's completely false...

Crying is not a weakness. It's something that should be able to work for you. It should also be a strength. I think if you can cry when you feel like crying it's a strength. If you feel like crying and you can't cry, that's a weakness. That means you're holding all that stuff inside.

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

I am an actress first, a singer second.

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

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

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

I never thought I was going to be a singer. That was an accident.

I only started getting into furs when the designers I liked started making them.

I see myself as no color. I can play the role of a man. I can paint my face white if I want to and play the role of white. I can play a green, I can be a purple. I think I have that kind of frame and that kind of attitude where I can play an animal. If you think in color, then everyone around you is going to think in color and that puts limits on the way you think. I don't think like that. A lot of the roles that I'm doing are roles that a man or a person of any color can do.

I think I'm doing a service to black women by portraying myself as a sex machine. I mean, what's wrong with being a sex machine, darling? Sex is large, sex is life, sex is as large as life, so it appeals to anyone that's living, or rather it should.

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

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

I'VE ALWAYS BEEN A REBEL. I NEVER DO THINGS THE WAY THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DONE. EITHER I GO IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION OR I CREATE A NEW DIRECTION FOR MYSELF, REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE RULES ARE OR WHAT SOCIETY SAYS.

If people think I'm angry, I don't want to burst anybody's bubble. I like sometimes for people to be afraid of me. But it's not really anger; it's discipline.

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

It doesn't surprise me that people can't see beyond my image. It's amazing, but I can understand it. That's what image is for. But it's never a problem for me. It's only a problem for them. I don't really care. I do what I want regardless.

I've had more misrepresentations than I can handle, and people have told the wickedest lies about me. A lot of them have taken their frustrations out on me, and I don't like that because it can wound. Not necessarily me, but those around me. Journalists can be so bad.

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

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

Survival is my primary instinct...it's out of my control. It's stronger than me. It's an outside force, a voice that says 'do this for your life or it will devour you.'

That's what they do in Argentina. Have a little wine and talk. Then have some coffee and talk. Then, go back to the wine.

There will always be a replacement coming along very soon - a newer version, a crazier version, a louder version. So if you haven't got a long-term plan, then you are merely a passing phase, the latest trend, yesterday's event.

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

To be honest, my life is not really as way-out and myth-loaded as people like to portray it.

When I started modelling, I'd raise my arms and it was all muscle and all the other models had nothing. Really, everybody thought I was a man. I don't have to do much to have muscles. It's just genetic.

You can be a boy, a girl, whatever you want. I have a lot of man in me.