The 30 Best Gladys Knight Quotes

The 78-year-old, Atlanta, Georgia-born Gladys Knight is a legend. Not only is she a standout solo artist but she rose to fame in the 1960s with her famed group, Gladys Knight and the Pips.

She has recorded two No. 1 singles—”Midnight Train to Georgia” and “That’s What Friends Are For—as well as eleven No. 1 R&B singles and six No. 1 R&B albums.

She has worked with the likes of Dionne Warwick, Sir Elton John and Stevie Wonder and she has earned seven Grammy Awards. Knight was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and two of her songs, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “Midnight Train to Georgia” were inducted into the Grammy Hall.

What else can we say, other than she’s an icon?

But the question here, is what did Knight have to say about the world, outside of her lovely music? What are her thoughts on life, love, her craft, and much more?

That’s the subject of today’s inquiry. So, without further ado, let’s dive into the 30 best Gladys Knight quotes.

1. “Nobody has a perfect anything. We don’t have perfect lives. We’re not perfect beings.”

2. “Believe me when I say this: you can’t please everyone in concert, even though I still want to. Someone always wants you to sing a song that isn’t necessarily on your setlist.”

3. “Love is what makes the world go around. I know it’s a big cliche to use, but it is the absolute truth. There is nothing else like it. I know that is what everybody is striving to feel: in relationships, in brother- and sisterhood, and in all of the things that we aspire to have in our lives.”

4. “I don’t regret any decisions I’ve made in my life.”

5. “I know those challenges that come up from time to time in life are our little learning tools, our little stepping stones. If we didn’t have those things in our life, how would we learn anything? We would just be walking around like nothing. We need those obstacles in our life because I know one thing—I’m a much better person for them.”

6. “Most people who ask me what’s my favorite song, expect that it’s ‘Midnight Train’ or ‘Neither One of Us.’ But actually, it’s always kinda been ‘The Need to Be’ because of what it says. I love the way that song was written, I love the melody, I love everything about it.”

7. “Well, I never danced with the ‘Pips’—they didn’t let me dance!”

8. “When I was on Arsenio Hall’s show, he asked me about working with Kanye West or John Legend. I said I’d love to.”

9. “I have a squash casserole that everybody, even my kids, love. I won’t tell my kids how to make it.”

10. “I had some great mentors as I was coming up and starting to sing so early—I’ve been singing since I was four. I had people telling me how to preserve myself.”

11. “Would you believe that Sammy Davis, Jr. taught me how to sing a ballad? ‘You can be in an arena,’ he said, ‘and you should be able to hold their attention.’”

12. “I love giving. I love sharing.”

13. “I like collaborations, and I like working with people. I do.”

14. “I have a thing about working with young people. I adore them.”

15. “I’m a people lover. I love interacting with different people as I meet them, and I think people are one of God’s greatest creations, I really do. They’re interesting and intriguing.”

16. “God is gracious enough to let us know, in due time while we’re here and the fact that I’m still around and I’m still singing, it is really to his glory.”

17. “I got into gambling when I was playing a casino. I was a hermit in those days. I would go onstage, go to my room, or if we had to travel, I’d get in a car or a plane, whatever. But I didn’t do anything. One day, this friend of mine said, ‘Do you want to play some blackjack?’”

18. “Soul is just that inner spirit. I use that inner spirit for whatever it is I do.”

19. “I have a faith that’s unbendable as far as my Lord and Savior is concerned.”

20. “We all have a responsibility, and since I’ve been so wonderfully blessed, I really want to share and to make life at least a little better. So every chance I get to share the gospel or uplift people, I will take full advantage of that opportunity.”

21. “When you pay your money to see me, I want you to have the best concert you can have from me.”

22. “I know how hard it is to send two kids to college when you ain’t got nothing. I know people may not think of me in that way, but this business gives you ups and downs.”

23. “I always kind of thought I want to be a good person, I want to be right to my fellow men and love them like we’re supposed to.”

24. “I’m comfortable singing jazz. The only thing I was concerned about is that everybody, even in jazz, has their own style. To me, the queen of doodling was Ella Fitzgerald, and scatting is something I never thought I could do.”

25. “That’s part of your life lesson to be afraid. The bigger question is how you deal with being afraid. Do you have to summon courage or something else to live with that fear without letting it take you over?”

26. “I am a Barack Obama fan from head to toe—always have been. He’s not perfect; nobody is going to be that way.”

27. “With ‘American Idol,’ they’re giving you a pass to get launched on, and it’s up to you what you do with it.”

28. “I’ve spent all of my life trying to get people to feel a passion for what I do.”

29. “Mary J. Blige has made the most improvement, to me, and the depth of the spirit and the soul in her music, the way she sings, gives her that ‘it’ factor.”

30. “We should definitely be more careful about the things that we choose to do with our lives.”

(Photo by Jo Hale/Redferns)