Patti LaBelle Quotations

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

I never thought I would be singing for the world.

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

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

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

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

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

People with no humor, they're outta my life.

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 have to go 150 percent or nothing at all.

I'll perform all the way to the grave.

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

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 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.

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

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 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.

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

Carlos Santana and I talked about that. So it'll be us with the girls. We all wanna do something. We're gonna plan. It's spontaneous but it has to be done.

I have spoken to a friend of mine. Actually, she was my background singer and she lives in New Orleans. I gave her a home today. I told her to move in with me because everything she ever thought of is gone.

Every time I come to Cincinnati, it's hot.

I've never ever given you less than I can give. I'm gonna give you everything you deserve.

I've never been this embarrassed in my life. It's the worst show I've ever done in my life.

They have the right name. They must be deaf if they don't hear me.

They were wrapped up in blankets. They couldn't clap.

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

I was very shy. I'm still shy.

I'm no different than you.

I'm so grounded, it's sad.

Being honored at Berklee College of Music; I got a doctorate. I am Doctor Patti.

I know how to put it on when it comes to interviews and performing because I have to. But I'm pretty laid back.

I haven't stopped looking for the good in people. I've just accepted the fact that I'm not always going to find it.

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

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

Once I stopped dwelling on what I didn't have, on what I thought I was going to lose, and began to give freely, everything opened up for me. Everything began to flow into my life.

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

Anger is like the blade of a butcher knife - very difficult to hold on to for long without harming yourself.

All these little heifers who can't sing are called ‘divas’.

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 very spontaneous.

I'm very shy in a crowd.

Many a false step is made standing still.

I want to be remembered as a woman who was fair and always gave 150 percent, no matter what I did.

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."

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.

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.

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

I've never been with a woman, so I guess I'm straight, OK? But I'm straight enough to know the difference between right and wrong. I am straight enough to know that if you want to marry whoever you want to marry, you should be able to marry whoever you want to marry

There's not much longevity in music today. It's so easy to go in, put some pretentious lyrics on, with people saying the same thing over and over and over.

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.

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."

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

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

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

Peace of mind just can't be bought. Trust me: Even if your conscience doesn't stop you from playing dirty to get what you want, once you get it, it will keep you from enjoying it. As my mother used to say, "A good conscience is God's eye." Which is why I always prefer a loss to an underhanded gain; the one brings pain at the moment, the other for all time.

Every exit is an entrance to someplace else.

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

Here's the thing about faith: It gives us the strength to go on when we want to give in. It gives us the courage to get up when we want to lie down. It gives us the power to make a way out of no way when there ain't no way. Just as love can't make you strong until love has made you weak, well, faith can't lift you up until life has knocked you down. With faith or without it, we can't stop the waves. But with it, we don't need to. Because with it we can ride the surf.

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.

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.

There is nothing more personal than your values. What you will and won't do to get ahead, the lines you will and won't cross to win, whom you will and won't step on for personal gain, are at the very core of your code of honor. And your code of honor determines your character. And your character is who you are. Behind closed doors. When nobody is watching.

Tell Aretha I’ll be praying for herBecause she needs Jesus!I love her.