Few artists have boasted a better singing voice than Tina Turner’s. Hers could cut open a closed heart and enliven a sleepwalker.
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Fans can just hear her singing, “What’s loooooove got ta do with it! Whaaaat’s loooove got ta do with it?”
She’s indelible, memorable, and an American treasure.
But what about what the 82-year-old, Brownsville, Tennessee-born artist had to say about the world outside of song? What were her thoughts on her life, career, legacy, and more? What did she think about life and love?
These are the subjects of the inquiry below. So, without further ado, let’s dive into the best 20 Tina Quotes.
1. “Sometimes you’ve got to let everything go—purge yourself. If you are unhappy with anything… whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you’ll find that when you’re free, your true creativity, your true self comes out.”
2. “My legacy is that I stayed on course… from the beginning to the end because I believed in something inside of me.”
3. “I will never give in to old age until I become old. And I’m not old yet!”
4. “My mother and father didn’t love each other, so they were always fighting.”
5. “I believe that if you’ll just stand up and go, life will open up for you.”
6. “My greatest beauty secret is being happy with myself. I don’t use special creams or treatments—I’ll use a little bit of everything. It’s a mistake to think you are what you put on yourself. I believe that a lot of how you look is to do with how you feel about yourself and your life. Happiness is the greatest beauty secret.”
7. “People think my life has been tough, but I think has been a wonderful journey. The older you get, the more you realize it’s not what happens, but how you deal with it.”
8. “I’m self-made. I always wanted to make myself a better person, because I was not educated. But that was my dream—to have class.”
9. “Physical strength in a woman—that’s what I am.”
10. “When my parents went off to Knoxville to work, I lived with my father’s mother. She was strict—the kind who starched and ironed dresses. I had to sit more than I played. Oh, I was miserable. I liked being out with the animals. I’d come in the house with my hair pulled out, sash off the dress, dirty as heck. I was always getting spanked.”
11. “I don’t hate myself anymore. I used to hate my work, hated that sexy image, hated those pictures of me onstage, hated that big raunchy person. Onstage, I’m acting the whole time I’m there. As soon as I get out of those songs, I’m Tina again.”
12. “I am attracted to myths.”
13. “I’ve never bothered about my color. I never had that thing about being black. If the whole world was like that, maybe there would be more harmony and love. Maybe. I don’t have a problem with being black in a white country or being with my people.”
14. “I’m not wise, but the beginning of wisdom is there; it’s like relaxing into—and an acceptance of—things.”
15. “I want to tell people how to live spiritually. After you’ve bought all your houses and your clothes, you want something bigger.”
16. “Ike’s problem was that he was a musician that always wanted to be a star; and was a star, locally, but never internationally… so he then changed the name to Ike and changed my name to Tina because if I ran away, Tina was his name. It was patented as you call it.”
17. “I never put a lot of praise on myself because of my relationship with Ike. I was just happy when I started to like myself—when I divorced and took control of my life.”
18. “You take your problems to a god, but what you really need is for the god to take you to the inside of you.”
19. “My career always took me away from home, I was always away from home and I just wanted to be at home.”
20. “I didn’t have anybody, really, no foundation in life, so I had to make my own way. Always, from the start. I had to go out in the world and become strong, to discover my mission in life.”
Tina Turner (Photo: HBO)
