You don't have to be an angel, just be someone who can give.
Patti LaBelle
All I can tell you really is if you get to the point where someone is telling you that you are not great or not good enough, just follow your heart and don't let anybody crush your dream.
I'm still standing up there tall and strong every night that I perform.
A diva is someone who is a perfectionist, who does her best in her craft.
I've been shut down, run down, talked about, dogged out, but that never stopped me from the being the true me that's here and will be here.
When I look into the crowd, I see young and old, black and white - it's amazing that I'm able to connect with so many different kinds of people.
I'm 60, and I did 60-year-old women songs. I'm not trying to be the Hip-Hop Queen, although I am the original Hip Hop Queen.
I like hip-hop music, but some of the lyrics make me want to cry.
I'm very shy in a crowd.
I decided to always sing in the back with the chorus and never went up front because I had trouble performing.
I just sing the stuff that makes me smile, makes me feel like I didn't sell myself out.
So if anybody wants to get me something, get me 60 crabs - one for each year. I don't want no diamonds, I don't want no shoes, I don't want no party. I want some crabs.
I'll perform all the way to the grave.
So if diva means giving your best, then yes, I guess I am a diva.
I keep showing decade after decade that I am a real performer.
I clean my house, although I have help. I'm on the floor getting spots. I can't stand a dirty house. I'm a cleaning fanatic.
I never wanted to go on stage alone because if you mess up, who can you blame?
I was a shy kid with a broom handle that I pretended was a microphone.
I think the race situation is getting better as far as people respecting each other goes. I think the race situation with entertainment is not that much better.
I'm no different than you.
You've got to know business before you go to show business.
Women are dominating the charts, and women are doing it for themselves. We're kicking butt and taking no prisoners.
I don't feel as though I have to prove anything to anybody.
I'm very spontaneous.
I love Canadians because I don't see very much racism in Canada.
I've had 60 years of ups and downs, and all of the downs that I've had, I'm happy that I've had them because it's taught me to appreciate all the ups.
I never thought I would be singing for the world.
I can't do some of the songs that younger girls like Mary J. Blige and Beyonce are doing. They have their own place and I have my own place.
People with no humor, they're outta my life.
I was very shy. I'm still shy.
I have to go 150 percent or nothing at all.
I truly respect the people who are working. If they want an autograph from Patti LaBelle, they are going to get it. I have never separated myself from them. I never think you are better than the next one.
I know how to put it on when it comes to interviews and performing because I have to. But I'm pretty laid back.
Whenever I go out, so many people who respect me ask me what to do in a certain situation. A lot of times, I didn't know the answers because sometimes I was going through the same sort of thing. But then later on, I would think of things that people told me.
I'm so grounded, it's sad.
When I was married, I wasn't loving myself. Now I'm in love with myself. I will get married again.
I want to be remembered as a woman who was fair and always gave 150 percent, no matter what I did.
Women are strong now. Women are dominating the charts, and women are doing it for themselves. We're kicking butt and taking no prisoners.
I don't tweet, Twitter, email, Facebook, look book, no kind of book. I have a land line phone at my home - that's the only phone I have. If my phone rang every day like everyone else around me, I would lose my mind.
