Women and men grow up with both sexes. Our mothers and fathers mean a lot to us, so it's just a question of finding a balance between their influences. I've found mine. And it tends to be more on the male side. I mean male side the way we understand it in the West.

I never thought I was going to be a singer. That was an accident.

I don't think 'pop' should mean that you had no talent.

When you become such a strong personality in music, it's hard for people to accept you as a different character.

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

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

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

I always thought that feminine, softer side was just too vulnerable to put out there, because then it's like you're opening up a door for everybody to come in, and you don't know who's going to come in that door.

Growing up in Jamaica, the Pentecostal church wasn't that fiery thing you might think. It was very British, very proper. Hymns. No dancing. Very quiet. Very fundamental.

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

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.

My father would have been made a bishop much earlier than he was had it not been for me and my image.

My dad's family were political and he was always a theatrical creature, whereas my mum is really musical and her father was the touring pianist with Nat King Cole. My family was an explosive mixture of politics, religion and music - no wonder I turned out how I did.

You can't expect your children to be perfect.

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

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

I don't like people who hide things.

To be honest, my life is not really as way-out and myth-loaded as people like to portray it.

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.

I am an actress first, a singer second.

I'm always rebelling. I don't think I'll ever stop.

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

I wanted to be a 'jungle mom', where you're giving birth and getting up and doing things straightaway.

I don't wear jewelry, so I wear furs. I don't have diamonds.

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 see myself as no color. I can play the role of a man. I can paint my face white if I want to and play the role of white. I can play a green, I can be a purple. I think I have that kind of frame and that kind of attitude where I can play an animal.

Mum was a high-jumper and qualified to go to the Olympics, but it got into the newspapers that she was married to my father, and the church put pressure on her to pull out of the Olympic team, saying, 'You can't be exposing all your legs.' That's how strong the influence of the church was on us all.

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

I like to experiment, and as an actress, I always thought it's good to be open about a lot of things.

There is some Eighties music that is just timeless. The melodies, the lyrics... I called it church. Church in club. You can shout and dance. The best of the Eighties was club church.

There will always be a replacement coming along very soon - a newer version, a crazier version, a louder version. So if you haven't got a long-term plan, then you are merely a passing phase, the latest trend, yesterday's event.

The problem with the Dorises and the Nicki Minajes and Mileys is that they reach their goal very quickly. There is no long-term vision, and they forget that once you get into that whirlpool, then you have to fight the system that solidifies around you in order to keep being the outsider you claim you represent.

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.

People always like to make me seem taller than I am.

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

Some people are both genders. I think you just come out the way you come out, and you have to embrace it honestly.

I don't party now, and nobody really knows how to party with me anymore. So I stay in a lot. I really am a home person.

I had no childhood, really, so I imagined more than played, and that definitely led to my showbusiness image, the theatrics and the drama of my life.

I'm a man-eating machine.

You had to wear a hat to go to church. We weren't allowed to straighten our hair. We couldn't wear jewellery, nail polish, open backed shoes, skirts above the knee... trousers were forbidden because male apparel on a female was not godly.

It's important that the sexes understand each other.

Even though the agency kept me pretty busy, I auditioned for every play and film I could find. But they all wanted a black American sound, and I just didn't have it. Finally, I got tired of trotting around and took myself to Paris.

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.

Yelling between people in love is normal.

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!

It's the nature of man to give and receive - to be man and woman, all in one.

I've changed. I'm not worried about what people think, because I think people think what they want to think anyway.