Top 60 Little Richard Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “I am the innovator. I am the originator. I am the emancipator. I am the architect of rock ‘n’ roll!”

— Little Richard

2. “God is omnipotent, He is omniscient, and He is ever present.”

— Little Richard

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

— Little Richard

4. “We’re gonna have some fun tonight.”

— Little Richard

5. “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.”

— Little Richard

6. “I thank God for making me a man.”

— Little Richard

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

— Little Richard

8. “It’s not the size of the ship; it’s the size of the waves.”

— Little Richard

9. “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?”

— Little Richard

10. “But men are so full of greed today, they’ll sell anything for a little piece of money.”

— Little Richard

11. “I only wore makeup when I went onstage.”

— Little Richard

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

— Little Richard

13. “I got a girl named Bony Maronie, she’s as skinny as a stick of macaroni.”

— Little Richard

14. “That’s what Tina Turner did, too – sang blues up-tempo – and they called it rock ‘n’ roll.”

— Little Richard

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

— Little Richard

16. “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.”

— Little Richard

17. “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.”

— Little Richard

18. “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.”

— Little Richard

19. “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.”

— Little Richard

20. “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.”

— Little Richard

21. “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.”

— Little Richard

22. “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.”

— Little Richard

23. “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.”

— Little Richard

24. “I don’t give the devil credit for creating nothing.”

— Little Richard

25. “I love God, and I’m a follower.”

— Little Richard

26. “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.”

— Little Richard

27. “And I don’t get down on nobody else for doing whatever else they do. To each his own.”

— Little Richard

28. “I did what I felt, and I felt what I did, at all costs.”

— Little Richard

29. “I just want the world to know that God is present, that he’s alive for ever more.”

— Little Richard

30. “I’m very much a gentleman in what I do.”

— Little Richard

31. “I think they saw me as something like a deliverer, a way out. My means of expression, my music, was a way in which a lot of people wished they could express themselves and couldn’t.”

— Little Richard

32. “I don’t think that you have to be effeminate to be sensitive.”

— Little Richard

33. “I would wear flamboyant clothes and long hair, and most singers at the time didn’t.”

— Little Richard

34. “A-bop-bop-a-loom-op-a-lop-bop-boom.”

— Little Richard

35. “Plus I love Tanya Tucker and I love country music.”

— Little Richard

36. “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.”

— Little Richard

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

— Little Richard

38. “God gives us the ability, but rock ‘n’ roll was created by men.”

— Little Richard

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

— Little Richard

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

— Little Richard

41. “And I think a woman should find it a joy to be female because God made both male and female.”

— Little Richard

42. “I also like the banging piano – that old good-time piano.”

— Little Richard

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

— Little Richard

44. “I came from a family where my people didn’t like rhythm and blues. Bing Crosby – “Pennies from Heaven” – Ella Fitzgerald, was all I heard.”

— Little Richard

45. “Now they have banging guitar and no bass and call it rock, but that’s not what I call rock.”

— Little Richard

46. “I gave up rock ‘n’ roll for the rock of ages! I used to be a glaring homosexual until God changed me!”

— Little Richard

47. “Like, my mother would have company over, and I would sing so they’d pay attention to me.”

— Little Richard

48. “I don’t think a woman has to act like a man to show that she has strength.”

— Little Richard

49. “But I was singing loud, and most singers weren’t singing loud.”

— Little Richard

50. “A lot of songs I sang to crowds to get their reaction. That’s how I knew they’d hit.”

— Little Richard