Madonna (entertainer)

“Madonna: "I am a sick fuck I have my nose in everybody's sex life!"”

“Straight men need to be emasculated. I'm sorry. They all need to be slapped around. Women have been kept down for too long. Every straight guy should have a man's tongue in his mouth at least once.”

“Then there are guys who say 'I have never fantasized about being with a man.' They are lying. And the least offensive men I've been with in terms of their sexual politics and how they view me as a woman, have been men who have either slept with men, or at least kissed or held a man once. It opens up your thinking. You don't think that women are less-than you are.”

“My pussy has nine lives.”

“A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That's why they don't get what they want.”

“I think I have a dick in my brain. I don't need to have one between my legs.”

“I've never really lived a conventional life, so I think it's quite foolish for me or anyone else to start thinking that I am going to start making conventional choices.”

“To rule the world.”

“Now there's no point in placing the blame And you should know I'd suffer the same”

“A lot of people are just really confused by me; they don’t know what to think of me, so they try to compartmentalize me or diminish me. Maybe they just feel unsafe. But any time you have an overtly emotional or irrational, negative reaction to something, you’re fearing something that it’s bringing up in you.”

“Better to live one year as a tiger, than a hundred as sheep.”

“I love horses. I think I may have been one of Henry VIII’s knights in another life, riding through a great forest.”

“I just like the idea of pills. I like to collect them but not actually take them. When I fell off my horse, I got tons of stuff: Demerol and Vicodin and Xanax and Valium and Oxycontin, which is supposed to be like heroin. And I'm quite scared to take them. I'm a control freak.”

“I'm tough, ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay.”

“I wanted to be a boy when I was growing up because I was in love with all of the male dancers I knew and they were all gay. And I thought, Well, if I was a boy, they'd love me. So I got into role-playing then. That's where it began. I remember when I was still in high school, I had cut my hair off really short, and I was totally anorexic - I had no boobs - and I would dress like a boy and go to gay clubs and my goal was to trick men into thinking I was a boy.”

“I have the most perfect belly button. When I stick my fingers in it, I feel a nerve in the center of my body shoot up my spine.”

“I'm not interested in being Wonder Woman in the delivery room. Give me drugs.”

“Phallic symbols. You know Catholics. I used to draw people naked all the time in my art class and my nun teachers used to tell me I had to put clothes on them. So I just drew lines around their bodies. See-through clothes.”

“Fame is a by-product. Fame is something that should happen because you do work that speaks to people and people want to know about your work. Unfortunately the personality of people has taken over from the work and the artistry and it's this thing now that stands on its own. I don't think one should ever aspire to being famous.”

“I must have been Japanese in a previous life. I'm pretty sure I was a warrioress. I can't explain it, I just know. I'm good at fighting - fighting with a big sword.”

“This is a historical evening. This is fucking important evening... We are lucky to be sharing it with each other. This is the beginning of a whole new world. Open your fucking head!”

“If we can elect an African American as president, we can support gay marriage! Defeat prop 8! We will not give up!”

“"When I experienced what was going on first hand, I just got sucked into the whole thing. Thank God I did. I met some amazing people and, hopefully, I’ve changed the lives of a lot of children. Just as important, I think it’s been an incredible growing and learning experience for me." (About her work in Malawi).”

“Not only does society suffer from racism and sexism but it also suffers from ageism. Once you reach a certain age you're not allowed to be adventurous, you're not allowed to be sexual. I mean, is there a rule? Are you supposed to just die?”

“"Publicly humiliating someone for your own gain will only come and haunt you. God’s going to have his revenge.”

“I hate polite conversation. I hate it when people stand around and go, 'Hi, how are you?' I hate words that don't have any reason or meaning. Also I hate it when people smoke in elevators and closed in places. It's just so rude.”

“I don't take drugs. I never did. All the feelings that drugs are supposed to produce in you - confidence or energy - I can produce naturally. The only problem is going to sleep. But I never take pills... I drink herbal teas.”

“I think that life is a paradox and you have to embrace that in your work and your belief systems... you can't be a literalist, and that's the trouble that people always find themselves in. That's why people always hit a wall with any of my stuff, because you can't take it literally.”

“One of my all-time favourite poets is Charles Bukowski. I think he's the coolest guy in the world.”

“I'm not a feminist, I'm a humanist.”

“Listen, everyone is entitled to my opinion.”

“That consciousness is everything and that all things begin with a thought. That we are responsible for our own fate, we reap what we sow, we get what we give, we pull in what we put out. I know these things for sure.”

“I am because we are. We all bleed the same color. We all want to love and be loved.”

“Be strong, believe in freedom and in God, love yourself, understand your sexuality, have a sense of humor, masturbate, don't judge people by their religion, color or sexual habits, love life and your family.”

“Every time I do a show, I die a little bit, but no shit is worth doing unless you're willing to die for it.”

“I pay attention to what’s going on around me. I’m always looking for new energy, new talent, new voices. When you do that I think it’s easier to come up with fresh ideas. It's not that my career has been based on surprising people, but it’s been about challenging myself — to constantly do new things that are going to broaden my own mind and in the process, hopefully, connect with other people.”

“Family is everything. Family comes first. It's not what I expected it to be, but nothing ever is.”

“Now that I got everyone's attention, what do I have to say?”

“I'm not going to compromise my artistic integrity.”

“I went to New York. I had a dream. I wanted to be a big star. I didn’t know anybody. I wanted to dance. I wanted to sing. I wanted to do all those things. I wanted to make people happy. I wanted to be famous. I wanted everybody to love me. I wanted to be a star. I worked really hard and my dream came true.”

“I haven't got much time to wasteBut I'm afraid to stay.”

“Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another.”

“Most priests are gay.”

“Come on girls! Do you believe in love? Cause I got something to say about it.”

“I was sacked from Dunkin' Donuts for squirting the donuts jelly all over the customers.”

“Rejection is the greatest aphrodisiac.”

“The cross is a very powerful symbol and it symbolizes suffering, but it also is connected to a person who was loving and sharing and his message was about unconditional love. I tried to take a powerful image and use it to draw attention to a situation that needs attention. For me, we all need to be Jesus in our time. Jesus' message was to love your neighbor as yourself and these are people in need.”

“It takes a Real man to fill my shoes.”

“Maybe I'm just a gay man inside a woman's body!”

“I don't care if you have a small dick, as long as you know how to use that stick.”

“Hey you! Don't be silly! Put a rubber on your willie!”

“No man can have sex with anyone but me and since I don't have that kind of time on my hands, you might as well all be gay!”

“I'll flirt with anyone from garbagemen to grandmothers.”

“If you don't like my attitude, then you can fuck off, just go to Texas and suck George Bush's dick!”

“When I came to New York it was the first time I'd ever taken a plane, the first time I'd ever gotten a taxi-cab, the first time for everything. And I came here with 35 dollars in my pocket. It was the bravest thing I'd ever done.”

“For me, a male image that I'm really moved by is somewhere between of Oscar Wilde type of a male: the fop, the long hair, the suits, too witty for his own good, incredibly smart, scathingly funny - all that. But then my other ideal is more like the Buddhist monk - the shaved head, actually someone who sublimates their sexuality.”

“I am attracted to a thug. I like that quality, but I like the other side of it, too. Because all guys who go around behaving in macho ways are really scared little girls. So you have to look beneath the surface. There's a difference between my ideal man and a man that I'm sexually attracted to, believe me. Therein lies the rub.”

“Hollywood is about playing the game, and I can't think of any successful actresses who didn't play the game. there's a lot more renegades in the music business, from Patti Smith to Janis Joplin.”

“I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.”

“"When I got my first paycheck, $5'000 or something. I bought a Leger and I bought a Frida Kahlo self-portrait, but I don't know which came first. But I remember buying it and I had just gotten married and it looked completely out of place in my house in Malibu." (When asked what was the first painting she bought).”

“What else is there for me to conquer? Hopefully my ego. How will I know when I've succeeded? When I stop caring what anyone thinks.”

“One must dare to show what he wants. You have to go and ask for things rather than wait for them to happen.”

“I'd like to think I am taking people on a journey; I am not just entertaining people, but giving them something to think about when they leave.”

“One set of circumstances does not complete you. Maybe nothing ever does. So you work on your life and you work on your 'work' and you try to live every single day like it's your last. And you try to be better, to yourself and to others. I don't always succeed. But I try and it's my goal.”

“I stand for freedom of expression, doing what you believe in, and going after your dreams.”

“I'm everything!”

“Italians do it Better”

“Life's too short to be bitter, I'm too short to be bitter.”

“Beauty is where you find it.”

“Absolutely no regrets.”

“Madonna: "Is that a rug?" (referring to David Letterman's hair).”

“Letterman: (after the singer brands him a "sick fuck") "You realize this is being broadcast don't you?"”

“Madonna: "Listen, all you do is talk about my sex life on your show, so now you don't want to talk about my sex life when I'm on your show?!"”

“Letterman: "I want to thank you folks for coming out for this run-through show. Thank you very much. This, of course, will never see the light of day. You won't miss a thing tonight."”

“Letterman: "Oh, stop it! Will you stop? Ladies and gentlemen, turn down your volume. Turn down the volume immediately! She can't be stopped! There's something wrong with her!"”