Patti LaBelle Quotes

I like hip-hop music, but some of the lyrics make me want to cry.

As Aunt Naomi was listing all the things she was going to do to help this person, her friend stopped her in mid-sentence. "Naomi, girl," she said, "you need to resign as general manager of the universe. You need to learn that sometimes the best way to help a person is to let them help themselves. Otherwise, they never learn how. And they are always going to make their problems your problems."

Many a false step is made standing still.

I was a shy kid with a broom handle that I pretended was a microphone.

A diva is someone who is a perfectionist, who does her best in her craft.

I never wanted to go on stage alone because if you mess up, who can you blame?

I have to go 150 percent or nothing at all.

I don't feel as though I have to prove anything to anybody.

You don't have to be an angel, just be someone who can give.

You've got to know business before you go to show business.

I'm very shy in a crowd.

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.

That's another lesson I've learned the hard way. All relationships will die if they aren't nurtured. Just as a flower will die if it's not watered. Because love is demonstration, not declaration.

Always respect yourself and don't go out there disrespecting yourself.

I always have to go that extra mile, and I do it and I don't mind doing it, but it isn't fair.

I keep showing decade after decade that I am a real performer.

I just sing the stuff that makes me smile, makes me feel like I didn't sell myself out.

All I do is stay in the kitchen and cook. I don't go there to party.

Women are dominating the charts, and women are doing it for themselves. We're kicking butt and taking no prisoners.

So if diva means giving your best, then yes, I guess I am a diva.

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.

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.

Every exit is an entrance to someplace else.

I decided to always sing in the back with the chorus and never went up front because I had trouble performing.

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.

God doesn't do the work for you; he does the work through you. It's not enough to look up; you must also look within.

When I was married, I wasn't loving myself. Now I'm in love with myself. I will get married again.

I'm still standing up there tall and strong every night that I perform.

I love Canadians because I don't see very much racism in Canada.

It's a sweet thing, faith. With it, you can handle any circumstance, any crisis, because you know God always has your back. And when God is for you, who can be against you? Nobody. As my Aunt Hattie says, "One and God are a majority."

Real divas give 150 percent. If they don't have the right dress, they'll go out in whatever they have. If there are no microphones, they'll still put on a show. They are people who put their heart and soul in what they do.

I'm no different than you.

I'm so grounded, it's sad.

In matters of the heart it is always better to want something you don't have than to have something you don't want.

When you take your troubles to God, you may have them but they don't have you.

I'm very spontaneous.