Elvis may be the King of Rock and Roll, but I am the Queen.
Little Richard
I did what I felt, and I felt what I did, at all costs.
I think God made a woman to be strong and not to be trampled under the feet of men. I've always felt this way because my mother was a very strong woman, without a husband.
It was a way out of poverty. It was a way to success. It was a way to education. And it was a way to a brighter day for me.
And I'd like to give my love to everybody, and let them know that the grass may look greener on the other side, but believe me, it's just as hard to cut.
God gives us the ability, but rock 'n' roll was created by men.
Black people lived right by the railroad tracks, and the train would shake their houses at night. I would hear it as a boy, and I thought: I'm gonna make a song that sounds like that.
I also think that what's wrong with all of us is that we don't show enough love toward each other.
I never accepted the idea that I had to be guided by some pattern or blueprint.
Gay people are the sweetest, kindest, most artistic, warmest and most thoughtful people in the world. And since the beginning of time all they've ever been is kicked.
I think my legacy should be that when I started in show business, there wasn't no such thing as rock n' roll. When I started with 'Tutti Frutti,' that's when rock really started rocking.
Greed has taken the whole universe, and nobody is worried about their soul.
I don't give the devil credit for creating nothing.
I would wear flamboyant clothes and long hair, and most singers at the time didn't.
A lot of people call me the architect of rock & roll. I don't call myself that, but I believe it's true.
But men are so full of greed today, they'll sell anything for a little piece of money.
I try to be a guide for people, to make their darkness bright and to make the pathway light, and never to condemn or control or criticize.
God is omnipotent, He is omniscient, and He is ever present.
People called rock & roll 'African music.' They called it 'voodoo music.' They said that it would drive the kids insane. They said that it was just a flash in the pan - the same thing that they always used to say about hip-hop.
I'm very much a gentleman in what I do.
I am the architect of rock n' roll. I have to be a fan of all its forms.
No, I've never truly been a minister.
I look back on my life, comin' out of Macon, Georgia - I never thought I'd be a superstar, a living legend. I never heard of no rock and roll in my life.
I've never seen the devil create music.
I'm here to sing.
Like, my mother would have company over, and I would sing so they'd pay attention to me.
I think people who don't believe in God are crazy. How can you say there is no God when you hear the birds singing these beautiful songs you didn't make?
I've never gotten money from most of those records. And I made those records: In the studio, they'd just give me a bunch of words, I'd make up a song! The rhythm and everything. 'Good Golly Miss Molly'! And I didn't get a dime for it.
I don't think that you have to be effeminate to be sensitive.
But I was singing loud, and most singers weren't singing loud.
When you sit down and think about what rock 'n' roll music really is, then you have to change that question. Played up-tempo, you call it rock 'n' roll; at a regular tempo, you call it rhythm and blues.
I thank God for making me a man.
I think they saw me as something like a deliverer, a way out. My means of expression, my music, was a way in which a lot of people wished they could express themselves and couldn't.
And I don't get down on nobody else for doing whatever else they do. To each his own.
I let people know that it was all right to do the kinds of things I did.
Now they have banging guitar and no bass and call it rock, but that's not what I call rock.
And I think a woman should find it a joy to be female because God made both male and female.
But I'm a rock 'n' roll singer; that's my livelihood, my occupation.
But when I went on the stage to do a show, I would put on makeup because I felt that it enhanced my act; it drew attention to what I was doing.
I also like the banging piano - that old good-time piano.
I always knew I was a man, always felt that I was a man, always wanted to be a man.
I don't think a woman has to act like a man to show that she has strength.
I just want the world to know that God is present, that he's alive for ever more.
I love God, and I'm a follower.
I never heard nobody in my audience call me any kind of names.
I only wore makeup when I went onstage.
I think that a man should be caring.
I tried to look presentable for a show, but not for sexual attraction. It was strictly for show business.
I was always my own person.
I was really kind of shy as a child. But I would do things for attention.
