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

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

But I'm a rock 'n' roll singer; that's my livelihood, my occupation.

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.

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

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.

And I don't get down on nobody else for doing whatever else they do. To each his own.