Somebody did complain to me and tell me that my clothes were so loud they couldn't hear me sing.

When I got hoarse, the manager would say, 'Drink this. Joplin used to drink this,' and I used to say, 'Joplin? Joplin's dead.

What, do you think that feminism means you hate men?

I'm in the business where you get the business all the time.

God has more important things to worry about than who I sleep with.

As the audiences got larger, the participation got larger. And I found myself in Dallas, and 20,000 people were singing 'Madonna Whore' back at me. I thought... this is really a great thing. They wanted to hear it really badly, and here they are.

Sometimes my mind boggles. It's so deep my mind actually boggles.

I've got a Grammy and Emmy, I'd like to have a Tony.

Somebody did complain to me and tell me that my clothes were so loud they couldn't hear me sing.

You know, I do speak the Queens English. It's just the wrong Queens that's all. It's over the 59th Street Bridge. It's not over the Atlantic Ocean.

Humour is a great vehicle for getting a message across. If you get too serious, you could die of starch.

I get the greatest feeling when I'm singing. It's other-worldly. Your feet are anchored into the Earth and into this energy force that comes up through your feet and goes up the top of your head and maybe you're holding hands with the angels or the stars, I have no idea.

When I sing I don't feel like it's me. I feel I am fabulous, like I'm 10 feet tall. I am the greatest. I am the strongest. I am Samson. I'm whoever I want to be.

I've always wondered what it would be like if somebody from outer space landed with three heads. Then all of a sudden everybody else wouldn't look so bad, huh? Well, OK you're a little different from me but, hey, ya got one head.

Before I became famous I had a very full life, and that gave me a lot to pick from. I always use everything. It always comes in handy. Working with animals... Well, I just enjoyed that. That was the most peaceful time.

Dick Clark was a really great influence in my career; he helped me a lot with his whole organization, and they were awesome to me at all different points - but one thing that I really disagreed with him on was when he said that what I do, pop music, is a disposable art form.

Everything does go in a circle.

Fame doesn't redeem you. It takes a long time to get there, and when you're finally there, you realise you still have authority figures telling you what to do.

I absolutely refuse to reveal my age. What am I - a car?

I always sang. I wanted to be in a band with my sister, and I was, at 11. At 12, I started writing seriously, and that was my pacifier all through high school - that and painting.

I can't judge the way other people behave. I can only look at myself.

I come from a line of great Sicilian women, and their mentality is to endure and push through to the other side.

I do have a lot of difficulty figuring out what I want to be working on, but what's the alternative? To be one of those people who has a million things they want to do, and then never does any of them? And then where will you be?

I don't have good business sense. You never get much money for the arts. But I like independence. I like to grow.

I have a hard time doing anything someone else tells me to do! I've always been driven to follow my own path and not be pushed down another lane because some executive thought I could be more commercially successful or whatever.

I have a wig for when I go outside among the regular folks, so they don't feel uncomfortable because I have a Day-Glo color somewhere in my hair.

I learned jazz; that comes from blues. I learned rock; that comes from blues. I learned pop; that comes from blues. Even dance, that comes from blues, with the answer-and-response.

I lucked out when I started to sing. I'd already experienced failing at everything else.

I never had a rivalry with Madonna. You don't knock another sister, ever. There's room for everybody on this planet; you don't have to be like anyone else.

I wanted to make the album I always needed to make. I had to say the things I never could.

I wouldn't record any song that I didn't like.

I'm not gonna worry about what people think about me. I'm too busy. I don't give a hoot.

I've always felt, even as a songwriter, that the rhythm of speech is in itself a language for me.

If you can't go one way, there's many ways to get where you're going. So you just take a step back and see beyond the wall.

If you saw me without makeup, you wouldn't recognize me.

It's that anonymous person who meanders through the streets and feels what's happening there, feels the pulse of the people, who's able to create.

Just like I am obsessed with the history of fashion, I love reading about the history of makeup.

Men and women are different. I don't think men grow a brain until 26 or even 30. Girls mature a lot quicker.

My mother said I was a little odd as a kid. I was alone a lot, but I didn't feel alone.

My music is about a joyful experience. I've learned that if you can affect other people, you should.

My torso is short, but my arms are really long and gangly and my legs and my neck, and my feet and hands are really long, and I look like a duck.

People can save the world by the way they think and by the way they behave and what they hold to be important.

The '80s was a really creative and brave period. Remember, it was a period of ultraconservatism, and so you needed brave people to push ahead like that.

The more you practice and study, the better you are... so I still practice and study all the time.

There have been great things that happened to me.

There's ageism in everything. I don't give a hoot. It isn't what other people think; it's what you think. But it's hard to come to terms with getting older. I admire people like Vivienne Westwood.

Understand where it is you want to go. Then picture yourself there. If you can picture yourself there, then you can be there. Bottom line.

When I perform on stage, I often pretend to be someone other than myself to bring a certain emotion or intent to a song.

When I sing I have a lot of visions. Like what's happening now in my life.