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" My mum was very glamorous, an incredible seamstress. She made up those Vogue, Givenchy and Yves St. Laurent patterns they used to sell. It was church couture, darling! Because my dad was a pastor, she could get away with more than other women. Her skirts were that bit tighter. "

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" Most performers take themselves too seriously. They forget there is a difference between the characters they play on the screen or stage and themselves, but the public doesn't forget there is a difference. They see how silly it is if you try to be the same person all the time. "

Grace Jones

Play

Try

Silly

" It was very painful combing my hair. My grand-uncle was a Pentecostal bishop, and he was very strict: our hair couldn't be permed or straightened. So I just cut it all off. "

Grace Jones

Strict

Hair

" People always like to make me seem taller than I am. "

Grace Jones

Seem

People

" More having to do whatever anybody said you had to do. I couldn't really do anything on my own. But as I got older and then came to America and then Grace became my name, it somehow freed me. All of a sudden, I can be this other person. "

" I wanted to be a 'jungle mom', where you're giving birth and getting up and doing things straightaway. "

" I always had to mask my emotions. I could never show that I missed my mom or my dad, especially when they moved to America. My grandparents were tough. I was not allowed to receive letters that had not been read before. Everything was controlled - everything! "

" Mum was a high-jumper and qualified to go to the Olympics, but it got into the newspapers that she was married to my father, and the church put pressure on her to pull out of the Olympic team, saying, 'You can't be exposing all your legs.' That's how strong the influence of the church was on us all. "

" I don't party now, and nobody really knows how to party with me anymore. So I stay in a lot. I really am a home person. "

" I've had more misrepresentations than I can handle, and people have told the wickedest lies about me. A lot of them have taken their frustrations out on me, and I don't like that because it can wound. Not necessarily me, but those around me. Journalists can be so bad. "

Grace Jones

Bad

" You don't do oysters and red wine together. That's a no-no; you just don't do that. I love a nice white wine with oysters. "

" I don't like people who hide things. We're not perfect, we all have things that people might not like to see, and I like to show my faults. "

" I don't take the English press seriously at all because all they want is dirt... I hate them. "

" I have been so copied by those people who have made fortunes that people assume I am that rich. But I did things for the excitement, the dare, the fact that it was new, not for the money. And too many times I was the first, not the beneficiary. "

" I was the only black girl at my junior high school. I had an afro, a Jamaican accent, I looked really old. "

" Models are there to look like mannequins, not like real people. Art and illusion are supposed to be fantasy. "

" In the Seventies and Eighties we all had our fun, and now and then we went really too far. But, ultimately, it required a certain amount of clear thinking, a lot of hard work and good make-up to be accepted as a freak. "

" I always thought that feminine, softer side was just too vulnerable to put out there, because then it's like you're opening up a door for everybody to come in, and you don't know who's going to come in that door. "

Grace Jones

Know

Door

" I see myself as no color. I can play the role of a man. I can paint my face white if I want to and play the role of white. I can play a green, I can be a purple. I think I have that kind of frame and that kind of attitude where I can play an animal. "

" I came from a very strict background, and didn't hear any Jamaican music when I was growing up. "

" I'm a man-eating machine. "

Grace Jones

Machine

" It's the nature of man to give and receive - to be man and woman, all in one. "

" There is some Eighties music that is just timeless. The melodies, the lyrics... I called it church. Church in club. You can shout and dance. The best of the Eighties was club church. "

" Fear is fear of fear, I think. "

" Listen to my advice; I have some experience. In a way, it is me being a teacher, which is what I wanted to be. I still feel I could go into teaching. What is teaching but passing on your knowledge to those who are at the beginning? Some people are born with that gift. "

" Be like Sasha Fierce. Be like Miley Cyrus. Be like Rihanna. Be like Lady Gaga. Be like Rita Ora and Sia. Be like Madonna. I cannot be like them, except to the extent that they are already being like me. "

Grace Jones

Being

" I like to think of myself as a positive person. Otherwise I wouldn't have had a child. "

" I feel feminine when I feel feminine. I feel masculine when I feel masculine. I am a role switcher. "

Grace Jones

Feel

I Am

" Growing up in Jamaica, the Pentecostal church wasn't that fiery thing you might think. It was very British, very proper. Hymns. No dancing. Very quiet. Very fundamental. "

" Women and men grow up with both sexes. Our mothers and fathers mean a lot to us, so it's just a question of finding a balance between their influences. I've found mine. And it tends to be more on the male side. I mean male side the way we understand it in the West. "

" My dad's family were political and he was always a theatrical creature, whereas my mum is really musical and her father was the touring pianist with Nat King Cole. My family was an explosive mixture of politics, religion and music - no wonder I turned out how I did. "