Little Richard Quotes

Gay people are the sweetest, kindest, most artistic, warmest and most thoughtful people in the world. And since the beginning of time all they've ever been is kicked.

When you sit down and think about what rock 'n' roll music really is, then you have to change that question. Played up-tempo, you call it rock 'n' roll; at a regular tempo, you call it rhythm and blues.

I am the innovator. I am the originator. I am the emancipator. I am the architect of rock 'n' roll!

A-bop-bop-a-loom-op-a-lop-bop-boom.

Greed has taken the whole universe, and nobody is worried about their soul.

And I'd like to give my love to everybody, and let them know that the grass may look greener on the other side, but believe me, it's just as hard to cut.

I think God made a woman to be strong and not to be trampled under the feet of men. I've always felt this way because my mother was a very strong woman, without a husband.

A lot of people call me the architect of rock & roll. I don't call myself that, but I believe it's true.

Elvis may be the King of Rock and Roll, but I am the Queen.

People called rock & roll 'African music.' They called it 'voodoo music.' They said that it would drive the kids insane. They said that it was just a flash in the pan - the same thing that they always used to say about hip-hop.

I did what I felt, and I felt what I did, at all costs.

God would be a very selfish god if he gave all the soul to one race. ... When one sings from the heart and it reaches another heart, that's soul.

I think people who don't believe in God are crazy. How can you say there is no God when you hear the birds singing these beautiful songs you didn't make?

God gives us the ability, but rock 'n' roll was created by men.

It was a way out of poverty. It was a way to success. It was a way to education. And it was a way to a brighter day for me.

I was washing dishes at the Greyhound bus station at the time and I said, 'Awap bop a lup bop a wop bam boom, take 'em out!'

It's not the size of the ship; it's the size of the waves.

My true belief about Rock 'n' Roll--and there have been a lot of phrases attributed to me over the years--is this: I believe this kind of music is demonic. ... A lot of the beats in music today are taken from voodoo, from the voodoo drums. If you study music in rhythms, like I have, you'll see that is true. I believe that kind of music is driving people from Christ. It is contagious

I also think that what's wrong with all of us is that we don't show enough love toward each other.

But men are so full of greed today, they'll sell anything for a little piece of money.

I don't give the devil credit for creating nothing.

They shoulda called me Little Cocaine, I was sniffing so much of the stuff! My nose got big enough to back a diesel truck in, unload it, and drive it right out again.

Rock 'n' roll doesn't glorify God. You can't drink out of God's cup and the devil's cup at the same time. I was one of the pioneers of that music, one of the builders. I know what the blocks are made of because I built them.

I saw Uncle John with Long Tall Sally, he saw Aunt Mary coming and he ducked back in the alley.

I invented rock & roll. Jimi Hendrix was my guitar player. James Brown was my vocalist.

I was directed and commanded by another power. The power of darkness. The power that you've heard so much about. The power that a lot of people don't believe exists. The power of the Devil. Satan.

I decided to come back and teach goodness in this business. To teach love, because music is the universal language. We are God's bouquet, and through music we become one.

Black people lived right by the railroad tracks and the train would shake their houses at night. I would hear it as a boy and I thought: I'm gonna make a song that sounds like that.

I got fame and fortune, and I lost my sense of reasoning.

I never accepted the idea that I had to be guided by some pattern or blueprint.

I love God, and I'm a follower.

But when I went on the stage to do a show, I would put on makeup because I felt that it enhanced my act; it drew attention to what I was doing.

I think that a man should be caring.

But I was singing loud, and most singers weren't singing loud.

I try to be a guide for people, to make their darkness bright and to make the pathway light, and never to condemn or control or criticize.

I also like the banging piano - that old good-time piano.

I never heard nobody in my audience call me any kind of names.

I tried to look presentable for a show, but not for sexual attraction. It was strictly for show business.

Elvis was God-given, there's no other explanation. A Messiah comes around every few thousand years, and Elvis was it this time.

I gave up rock 'n' roll for the rock of ages! I used to be a glaring homosexual until God changed me!

Rock 'n' roll offered me a platform to speak what I felt. It also offered me a platform to support my mama and my brothers and sisters - twelve children.

No, I've never truly been a minister.

God is omnipotent, He is omniscient, and He is ever present.

Now they have banging guitar and no bass and call it rock, but that's not what I call rock.

I thank God for Elvis Presley. I thank the Lord for sending Elvis to open the door so I could walk down the road.

I'm very much a gentleman in what I do.

I let people know that it was all right to do the kinds of things I did.

I look back on my life, comin' out of Macon, Georgia - I never thought I'd be a superstar, a living legend. I never heard of no rock and roll in my life.

I don't think a woman has to act like a man to show that she has strength.

I would wear flamboyant clothes and long hair, and most singers at the time didn't.