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 only wore makeup when I went onstage.

I am the architect of rock n' roll. I have to be a fan of all its forms.

I'm a conductor of revivals. The only minister in the whole package. Little Richard, the evangelist.

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.

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 was really kind of shy as a child. But I would do things for attention.