Natalie Cole Quotes

"I'm an ordinary person under extraordinary circumstances."

"I know that God has had my back, even when I was screwing up."

"We have to stop rewarding bad behavior."

"The medication I had to take was a form of chemotherapy. You feel like death every day. No appetite. No energy. But the treatment worked. It cured my liver 80 per cent but compromised my kidneys."

"My idols are Janis Joplin and Annie Lennox, who are neither of them from the typical pop culture."

"I have been to hell and back. I have seen the edge. I have seen the dark side of life."

"I still love recording and still love the stage, but like my dad, I have the most fun when I am in front of that glorious orchestra or that kick-butt big band."

"By the time I approached my forties, I had the self-assurance to approach all the genres I love so deeply: R & B, rock, jazz, and pop."

"It's hard to be in the shadow of a Beyonce."

"I think that talented people really do have insecurities, and that is one of the things that kind of motivates them, because that's one thing they know they're good at. And when they're up on that stage, you can do no wrong. The audience is yours; they're there to see you."

"I've always been interested in the office. I was a secretary a long time ago, and I've always been into paperwork. My first secretarial job was 1965 or 1966."

"As miserable as I was, once I started singing, I felt better."

"Aretha Franklin does not like me."

"I think that I am a walking testimony to you can have scars. You can go through turbulent times and still have victory in your life."

"I like Babyface, but he keeps the good stuff for himself. If he's willing to give his good stuff to me, we'll talk. But it can't be any of his B-grade stuff."

"I have been on dialysis in Istanbul, Milan, Indonesia, Manila, London. It's - it's amazing."

"I was madly in love with Elvis Presley. Dad wasn't into it at all, at least not for himself as a performer. He used to say, 'Mr. Cole does not rock n' roll.'"

"I had to make peace with my past because I can't change it."

"My friend was on dialysis for six years before he got a new kidney. I was on dialysis for eight months. I'm almost not even the typical person who has kidney failure."

"I think that I sound a lot better than Diana Ross."

"I'm just really, really thankful. I'm thankful to the doctors; I'm thankful to the family that donated the kidney."

"I think people hear the warmth in my voice and the friendliness, and they think: 'Oh, she must be a very nice person'."

"I think foreign countries really do like it when American artists sing in their language. And when you go over there and say, 'Hi, how are you?' in their language, they love it. It makes them feel like you're doing it just for them. We in America take so much for granted."

"I've had my share of doing things that I really wish I hadn't done."

"I never got to make that transition from little girl to young woman... and that really screws you up."

"I don't think that my parents even imagined that I would be exposed to drugs. In those days, for some reason, it was not talked about, just like sex was not talked about."

"When you have put all your faith in man and continue to be disappointed, don't you hope there is something out of there that is not of human element?"

"There's inevitably something missing when you grow up in this kind of an environment when your parents travel a lot. When your father is famous, you are looked at and expected of. There are standards you need to meet."

"We had some wonderful people raising us, but they still weren't our parents. As you get older, it gets distorted and convoluted, complicated, and, of course, you start looking for attention, affection, affinity in all the wrong places and in all the wrong ways."

"God surrounded me with people of faith, people of strong faith, people of power, spiritual power, and I saw little miracles happen in their lives. By it happening in their lives, I started believing it could happen to me."