Top 50 Patti LaBelle Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Every exit is an entrance to someplace else.”

— Patti LaBelle

2. “I’m still standing up there tall and strong every night that I perform.”

— Patti LaBelle

3. “I have to go 150 percent or nothing at all.”

— Patti LaBelle

4. “I haven’t stopped looking for the good in people. I’ve just accepted the fact that I’m not always going to find it.”

— Patti LaBelle

5. “God doesn’t do the work for you; he does the work through you. It’s not enough to look up; you must also look within.”

— Patti LaBelle

6. “I always have to go that extra mile, and I do it and I don’t mind doing it, but it isn’t fair.”

— Patti LaBelle

7. “People with no humor, they’re outta my life.”

— Patti LaBelle

8. “I’m so grounded, it’s sad.”

— Patti LaBelle

9. “You don’t have to be an angel, just be someone who can give.”

— Patti LaBelle

10. “That’s another lesson I’ve learned the hard way. All relationships will die if they aren’t nurtured. Just as a flower will die if it’s not watered. Because love is demonstration, not declaration.”

— Patti LaBelle

11. “I’ve had 60 years of ups and downs, and all of the downs that I’ve had, I’m happy that I’ve had them because it’s taught me to appreciate all the ups.”

— Patti LaBelle

12. “All I can tell you really is if you get to the point where someone is telling you that you are not great or not good enough, just follow your heart and don’t let anybody crush your dream.”

— Patti LaBelle

13. “In matters of the heart it is always better to want something you don’t have than to have something you don’t want.”

— Patti LaBelle

14. “Women are strong now. Women are dominating the charts, and women are doing it for themselves. We’re kicking butt and taking no prisoners.”

— Patti LaBelle

15. “Once I stopped dwelling on what I didn’t have, on what I thought I was going to lose, and began to give freely, everything opened up for me. Everything began to flow into my life.”

— Patti LaBelle

16. “So if diva means giving your best, then yes, I guess I am a diva.”

— Patti LaBelle

17. “It’s a sweet thing, faith. With it, you can handle any circumstance, any crisis, because you know God always has your back. And when God is for you, who can be against you? Nobody. As my Aunt Hattie says, “One and God are a majority.””

— Patti LaBelle

18. “I clean my house, although I have help. I’m on the floor getting spots. I can’t stand a dirty house. I’m a cleaning fanatic.”

— Patti LaBelle

19. “When I was married, I wasn’t loving myself. Now I’m in love with myself. I will get married again.”

— Patti LaBelle

20. “Anger is like the blade of a butcher knife – very difficult to hold on to for long without harming yourself.”

— Patti LaBelle

21. “Always respect yourself and don’t go out there disrespecting yourself.”

— Patti LaBelle

22. “I’m no different than you.”

— Patti LaBelle

23. “When I look into the crowd, I see young and old, black and white – it’s amazing that I’m able to connect with so many different kinds of people.”

— Patti LaBelle

24. “A diva is someone who is a perfectionist, who does her best in her craft.”

— Patti LaBelle

25. “I’ve never been with a woman, so I guess I’m straight, OK? But I’m straight enough to know the difference between right and wrong. I am straight enough to know that if you want to marry whoever you want to marry, you should be able to marry whoever you want to marry.”

— Patti LaBelle

26. “Being honored at Berklee College of Music; I got a doctorate. I am Doctor Patti.”

— Patti LaBelle

27. “Real divas give 150 percent. If they don’t have the right dress, they’ll go out in whatever they have. If there are no microphones, they’ll still put on a show. They are people who put their heart and soul in what they do.”

— Patti LaBelle

28. “I’m 60, and I did 60-year-old women songs. I’m not trying to be the Hip-Hop Queen, although I am the original Hip Hop Queen.”

— Patti LaBelle

29. “I love Canadians because I don’t see very much racism in Canada.”

— Patti LaBelle

30. “I just sing the stuff that makes me smile, makes me feel like I didn’t sell myself out.”

— Patti LaBelle

31. “So if anybody wants to get me something, get me 60 crabs – one for each year. I don’t want no diamonds, I don’t want no shoes, I don’t want no party. I want some crabs.”

— Patti LaBelle

32. “When you take your troubles to God, you may have them but they don’t have you.”

— Patti LaBelle

33. “Whenever I go out, so many people who respect me ask me what to do in a certain situation. A lot of times, I didn’t know the answers because sometimes I was going through the same sort of thing. But then later on, I would think of things that people told me.”

— Patti LaBelle

34. “I don’t feel as though I have to prove anything to anybody.”

— Patti LaBelle

35. “I never wanted to go on stage alone because if you mess up, who can you blame?”

— Patti LaBelle

36. “I’m very spontaneous.”

— Patti LaBelle

37. “There’s not much longevity in music today. It’s so easy to go in, put some pretentious lyrics on, with people saying the same thing over and over and over.”

— Patti LaBelle

38. “I can’t do some of the songs that younger girls like Mary J. Blige and Beyonce are doing. They have their own place and I have my own place.”

— Patti LaBelle

39. “I was a shy kid with a broom handle that I pretended was a microphone.”

— Patti LaBelle

40. “I like hip-hop music, but some of the lyrics make me want to cry.”

— Patti LaBelle

41. “I decided to always sing in the back with the chorus and never went up front because I had trouble performing.”

— Patti LaBelle

42. “I’ll perform all the way to the grave.”

— Patti LaBelle

43. “I keep showing decade after decade that I am a real performer.”

— Patti LaBelle

44. “I know how to put it on when it comes to interviews and performing because I have to. But I’m pretty laid back.”

— Patti LaBelle

45. “All I do is stay in the kitchen and cook. I don’t go there to party.”

— Patti LaBelle

46. “I never thought I would be singing for the world.”

— Patti LaBelle

47. “I truly respect the people who are working. If they want an autograph from Patti LaBelle, they are going to get it. I have never separated myself from them. I never think you are better than the next one.”

— Patti LaBelle

48. “I was very shy. I’m still shy.”

— Patti LaBelle

49. “I think the race situation is getting better as far as people respecting each other goes. I think the race situation with entertainment is not that much better.”

— Patti LaBelle

50. “You’ve got to know business before you go to show business.”

— Patti LaBelle