Suzi Quatro Quotations

Anyone who has had their heart broken learns to keep a little safety area. Even now in my relationship, I have something I can call my own in case something goes wrong. You need a place to retreat to.

Even though my first marriage broke up, I'd say that I've had two good marriages and two good men. I've been very lucky. I like to think it's karma because, in a relationship, I give 300 per cent. I'm straight with my men, and I like to think it comes back.

I'd always been insecure. Being the fourth of five kids means attention is divided five ways, and to do this equally is impossible. I grew up feeling like the little orphan in the family, the one who didn't fit in.

I've got more than 600 pairs of Ray-Ban sunglasses, from 1950s originals to newer models. I have them on the wall like opticians do so I can pick out a pair that goes with my outfit. I had around 30 pairs, then my husband Rainer started getting them for me as birthday and Christmas gifts.

I've got a quick mouth, and I set my boundaries. Nothing ever happened that I couldn't handle. Once when a guy came on stage making rude gestures, I hit him over the head with my guitar.

When I was seven, I decided to buy all my friends some ice cream, but the problem was where to get the money. Sneaking into church, I went to the side of the altar where you can light a candle for your loved ones and took the money from the collection boxes.

I'm told I'm an incredible flirt because I don't know I'm doing it. I don't want to even analyse it, but I seduce people, apparently; I suck them in.

Be honest, be kind, and share the love.

The Pleasure Seekers eventually turned into Cradle, when we started writing our own material. My younger sister Nancy was brought in as singer and I kind of stepped aside as main lead singer and concentrated on my instrument.

Bass guitar is the engine of the band.

I miss America because it's where I grew up. I miss the size of the roads, the size of cars, the malls, the choices of radio.

I'm totally active. I am just this side of hyper. I jog and go to the gym every day. When I'm on the computer, I'm reading, I'm writing, I'm never quiet. My brain is very rarely not engaged. Every now and again I will fall asleep under the parasol in the sun, but that's a rarity.

The bass player's function, along with the drums, is to be the engine that drives the car... everything else is merely colours.

I am flattered to have been the woman to have opened the door for female rockers to be accepted into the mainly male industry.

I made up my mind that I was going to be just like Elvis. It never occurred to me that Elvis was a man. I just wanted to be him. He had a huge impact on me, right down to that black leather jumpsuit he wore on the 68 Comeback Special.

There are things you're supposed to learn in life. My biggest regret was terminating a pregnancy when I was about 18. Every day, I think about who that baby would be now; it still makes me sad.

As far as more recognition goes, I am happy with the amount of love and respect I have received from other artists and the public. Of course, I would love more, and think I deserve it.

I can feel things - tap into emotions. When I meet a new person, I know their life straight away. I suppose you could call it a special intuition, but it's my number one quality, and I'm always 99.9 percent right. If I don't like someone, it always turns out to be for a good reason.

I may have been sexy, but I was covered up total. There was something left to the imagination.

I read and write classical piano and percussion, also guitar.

A bass should sound like a bass with the thump of the finger against the wood, like it began with stand up.

Rock n' roll! It's the music of puberty.

I don't care what anyone says, but all children prefer their parents to be together.

Reality shows have a lot to answer for. They applaud mediocrity.

Rock and roll mainly but I can play passable jazz also.

I always found the road exciting. I liked stinking hotels and freezing dressing rooms.

My look hasn't changed in years. It's a uniform of T-shirts, ripped jeans and cowboy boots. I have a black fitted suit that I wear on the odd occasion when I have to dress up, but I tend to have rocky things in my wardrobe that I pull out and recycle.

One of my insecurities was my looks. I was short, cute and chubby, and Dad used to call me his 'little fat sausage.' But I always knew I had musical talent.

Music has always been in my family, but it was mainly keyboards. I learned to play classical piano, but when I first heard the amazing bass guitar of James Jamerson, who played on all the big Motown hits of the '60s and '70s, I knew bass guitar was my instrument.

I got my first real bass guitar in my hands when I was 14 - a 1957 Fender Precision, which is still hanging on the wall in my front room. I loved the heaviness of it and the feel of the wood. I still do.

I don't know what else I would do. I love entertaining people, I love communicating, I love an audience. I'm a real artist, right from the bottom of my toes to the top of my head.

I am the fourth of five children, and I can't remember a time with no babies in the house.

I hate canceling anything, I'm 'the show must go on' mentality. If you can crawl, you can take the stage.

I was inspired by Billie Holliday, and I really liked Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las because she wore tight trousers and a waistcoat on top - she looked hot.

Joan was one of my biggest fans, as was Chrissie Hynde.

I was a me-ist. I believed in the right to do whatever I wanted to do regardless of gender. Still do.

My own musical ambitions were born when I was five, watching the Ed Sullivan Show on TV. When Elvis Presley burst on to the screen, singing 'Don't Be Cruel,' I felt my first sexual thrill, though I didn't know what it was at the time.

I think like a man but have the emotions of a woman, and that's really dangerous.

I would like to live forever in people's hearts and minds; that would be fun. I'll leave the world my art.

When punk picked up black leather, I put it down.

There comes a crossroads in every marriage where you grow together or grow apart. I outgrew Len. He wanted me to be in that leather jumpsuit for the rest of my life and do nothing else. He constrained me. It got to a point where the marriage died or I did.

Do as many gigs as the good Lord sends. That's the only true training.

Ever since I was a child, I've just had this sense that I'm connected to the spiritual world. I thought everyone else felt the same way. I can hear voices - not all the time - but when I'm with certain people, it sometimes comes through.

I used to buy scented poetry books on tour and read aloud to the band. Not what you'd expect, huh?

'Rolling Stone,' my first single, was only a hit in Portugal, but when we recorded my second single, 'Can The Can,' I got that hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck feeling, and I knew it would be huge. It topped the charts in the U.K. and Australia in 1973, and I got my first gold disc.

You're all right, as long as you don't believe your own hype.

As Mick Jagger will tell you, performing is an aerobic work-out. I've got the bass guitar, which is the heaviest of all the instruments, and I'm a little girl, in boiling-hot leather under the lights. You have to keep the fitness level up if you want to look good up there.

It sounds corny, but I consider myself an old-fashioned entertainer. I could have been in variety.

Then my own TV chat show in England in 1989.

The bass should be the note of the bass drum, and then you've got the engine of the band that everything else builds on. Everything else, the guitar, the keyboards, is a colour.

The two best shows I ever saw, can't pick between them - Don McLean on his own with his guitar and also - Wayne Newton in Las Vegas.

This is just the way it goes: there's always a cycle with music - it goes up and it goes down, it goes risque and it goes back, it goes loud then it goes soft, then it goes rock and it goes pop.

I joined an all-girl band in Detroit and, although I was a pianist and drummer, I was asked to play bass because no one else wanted to. When I strapped it on, it fit me as good as my leathers. At the first gig we played, I looked out at the audience and thought, 'This is what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life.'

I jog every day, but I haven't had plastic surgery - though that's not to say if one day I look in the mirror and go 'Ugh!' I won't have something done.

I like a 5 string bass - it gives you some interesting options. I played one a few times on stage. There was no problem... I was real natural.

I'm a bit of a wine snob and like a glass of Chateaux Margaux '82 with a meal or to unwind.

I never, ever saw myself as glam because I didn't wear makeup... my image is a plain leather jumpsuit, which is not glam at all. I've always seen myself as rock n' roll and not glam.

In Japan, they named a sake after me.

I'm not a great flyer. It's ironic, since I'm in showbiz and have to fly at least twice a week. I try to sleep and blot it out.

I'm one of those rare breed of rock n' rollers with a brain, probably because the brain's still intact.

I'm a Scrabble nut, and I need something to do while I'm travelling. Scrabble keeps me occupied, I play against myself. I have a high score of 718 that I'm always trying to beat. I'm a good player. You don't want to play me for money, that's for sure.

Inside, I feel 30ish - I'm childish and optimistic.

I refused to wear make-up on TV. I wanted my music to be heard.

I have record approximately 10 studio albums. I had 16 top ten singles and sold in excess of 45 million records all over the world.

I haven't talked to any young artists for a long time. But if we did sit down, I'd definitely tell them my viewpoint. If it was Lady Gaga, I'd say: 'You're talented, and you've obviously got the goods... what the hell are you doing with your image? How can anyone take you serious?'

I never wanted to model myself on a female singer, which tells you a lot about my character. I didn't have a female role model. There just wasn't anybody around. I played with the boys and beat them at their own game.

I just couldn't get into the high school scene at all. I was fat, ugly and weird. I just couldn't do the makeup and the hairdos.

I don't really think about male and female; if something's right for me, it's right for me, and it doesn't matter what it is - maybe that's what it took for me, a woman, to break down the doors.

I didn't think I was going to change the world for women; I just did what I did. My big thing was that I didn't change who and what I was to become successful. I will not be told what to do; I'm a real independent girl.

Age isn't a barrier to playing the bass, and I've definitely improved over the years, although maybe I'm not as flash as I once was. But looking back, I can't imagine a life without a guitar.

The golden rule for playing the bass is that's it all about feel, not just plonking away. You need to feel the sound, not using a pick or a plectrum - which has meant plenty of calluses on my fingers.

I am busy touring all over Europe, Japan, and Australia.

My feet never touched the ground. Lots of good groups with crazy and unique images. It was wild. I spent all of my time doing gigs, TV appearances, interviews, or recording. I could write a book -- and probably will.

After moving to England I did some recording and eventually formed an English band, this was together for quite a few years with only a keyboard replacement. The band had no name, just my name.

I also have a big love of classical music played on piano because this is the environment I grew up in my brother being one of the great masters in this world.

Love is the best part of life

I have recorded nine tracks for a new album which I financed myself and am looking for a home for.

I've always maintained that you can be sexy with your clothes on. Sexier maybe.

I've seen it [Australia] go from a lot of small towns to big towns, but I think it has found its identity in all this time... it's a very special country, I could easily live here.

Down in devil gate drive. I led the angel pack on the road to sin. Knock down the gates, let me in.

Nothing heals like love and time

Len and I had parted musical ways and this was one of the problems.

Guitar is for the head, drums are for the chest, but bass gets you in the groin