Quotes

I'm the only person left doing the kind of work that I do.

I will never give in to old age until I become old. And I'm not old yet!

Sometimes, you've got to let everything go--purge yourself. If you are unhappy with anything . . . whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you'll find that when you're free, your true creativity, your true self comes out.

This is what I want in heaven . . . words to become notes and conversations to be symphonies.

There comes a point where it is just undignified to be a rock 'n' roll star.

Physical strength in a woman--that's what I am.

[on Mick Jagger] Mick is just naughty, you know? The first time I ever went onstage with him, he tried to nudge the microphone in my crotch. He's like a bad boy in school. That's why [The Rolling Stones] are like boys to me, because I've raised sons. When you raise boys, you know how they play. With Mick, you always have to be on guard, because you never know what he's going to do. But Mick is like a brother. It wasn't as if some guy pulled off my skirt; it was like this boy I knew did it.

I don't hate myself anymore. I used to hate my work, hated that sexy image, hated those pictures of me onstage, hated that big raunchy person. Onstage, I'm acting the whole time I'm there. As soon as I get out of those songs, I'm Tina again.

I have a simple, childlike view of life, and I want to keep it. That's why I never got into that Beverly Hills world. So many pretentious people. They just aren't real.

I never did like James Brown. I always did like Ray Charles. He was my only influence, because I always liked to sing more or less like men sing, and sound like they sound. Like he and Sam Cooke were my influences.

I am strong, I lived through a divorce, separation from my family, all kinds of hell. I never let it break me down. I'm not an alcoholic, I've never smoked, I've never done drugs. I've floated through the disaster of my past clean. I arrived here undamaged, I haven't aged from all that stress.

Britain's got such great musicians. I always wanted to have the right music that I wanted under me and it always came from here. It gave me an energy. There was an energy here that brought something out in me.

In America, people just saw me as a black singer. But in Europe, people looked at me as a rock singer.