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

I was born into a very religious family where everything was about setting the right example for the community and having to obey orders blindly. I felt that everyone was growing up in the world, except me. This is probably one of the reasons why I had such a rebellious attitude towards any form of authority.

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.

I am not a diva: I am a Jones. 'Diva' is so overused. Diva, icons, the whole thing, legends... To be a diva, what is that?

Sometimes we'd have to climb a tree and pick our own whips to be disciplined with. When you had to pick your own whip, you knew you were in for it.

For me, a diva is like the great opera singer, the great film star - out of reach, in their own world, with a real gift for invention: attention-demanding performance artists with a flamboyant, compelling sense of their own importance so special and inimitable it verges on the alien.

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

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.

My brother used to get beaten up all the time because he was very effeminate.

If you want me to work with you, then come with an idea. Come with music.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 was a go-go dancer, too. I called myself 'Grace Mendoza' to fool my parents.

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

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 don't do oysters and red wine together. That's a no-no; you just don't do that. I love a nice white wine with oysters.

Gaga came to me, and I just could not find a soul. I come from church; maybe that has something to do with it. I like to get to the soul of a person. I just didn't feel a soul.

I always had to mask my emotions. I could never show that I missed my mom or my dad, especially when they moved to America. My grandparents were tough. I was not allowed to receive letters that had not been read before. Everything was controlled - everything!

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

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

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

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.

Listen to my advice; I have some experience. In a way, it is me being a teacher, which is what I wanted to be. I still feel I could go into teaching. What is teaching but passing on your knowledge to those who are at the beginning? Some people are born with that gift.

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

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

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.

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.