Whether the subject has been sex, politics or religion, Madonna has never been afraid of sticking her oar in. Her fondness for stirring up controversy and unbreakable self-confidence have given journalists plenty of tasty quotations to get their teeth into over the years.

DS takes a look back at some of Madonna's most famous, funny and controversial utterances.

Madonna On Sex

  • "My p***y is the temple of learning."

  • "Everyone probably thinks that I'm a raving nymphomaniac, that I have an insatiable sexual appetite, when the truth is I'd rather read a book."

  • "We lie right next to each other with our BlackBerrys under our pillows. It's not unromantic, it's practical."
    • (On what goes on in the Ritchie bedroom.)

  • "I think I have a d**k in my brain. I don't need to have one between my legs. It would be like having a third leg."
Madonna On Men

  • "I'm a romantic. I believe in true love and, you know, finding your soul-mate and all of those things, but I just don't know about the whole marriage thing. I mean, what's the point of it really?"
    • (Speaking to CNN's Larry King - someone should have warned Guy!)

  • "Maybe I'm a gay man in a woman's body."

  • "Why did God create men? Because vibrators can't mow the lawn."

  • "Strong women love big hickies."
Madonna Being Controversial

  • "Crucifixes are sexy because there's a naked man on them!"

  • "If you don't like my attitude, then you can f**k off. Just go to Texas and you can suck George Bush's d**k."
    • (Madonna onstage at the Coachella music festival.)

  • "Most priests are gay."
Madonna Being Weird

  • "I love Cadbury's Fruit And Nut, Crunchies and Maltesers, but my absolute favourite is a Cadbury's Creme Egg. They are totally deadly but so delicious."

  • "I love horses. I think I may have been one of Henry VIII's knights in another life, riding through a great forest."

  • "You can't go to London and not start drinking Guinness, and I have been known to eat fried fish and French fries. When in Rome, right?"
Madonna On Madonna

  • "I want to be like Gandhi and Martin Luther King and John Lennon... but I want to stay alive."

  • "I wanted to make people happy. I wanted to be famous. I wanted everybody to love me. I wanted to be a star. I worked really hard and my dream came true."

  • "I live for meeting with men in suits. I love them because I know they had a really boring week and I walk in there with my orange velvet leggings and drop popcorn in my cleavage and then fish it out and eat it."
Madonna On Her Critics

  • "The ones that said I was talentless, that I was chubby, that I couldn't sing, that I was a one-hit wonder. They pushed me to be better, and I am grateful for their resistance."
    • (Madonna at her recent induction into the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame.)

  • "Better to live one year as a tiger than a hundred as a sheep."

  • "Listen, everyone is entitled to my opinion."