Janet Jackson Quotes

As a child, I had to get up early for school or work. I'd get ready by myself. I'd set my alarm to wake me up very early in the morning, and be off to work, the family driver driving me every morning. I did it alone, my parents never coming in to wake me up.

Bound together by our beliefs, we are like minded individuals, sharing a common vision, pushing toward a world rid of color lines.

It has taken me most of my adult life to come to terms with who I am. To do that, I had to break free of attitudes that brought me down.

I have met Mariah before and she's really cool and so funny. Everyone has been given the wrong impression of her, and maybe it is her doing. But you have to remember that celebrities are always in the spotlight and are sometimes forced to conduct themselves in a different way than they normally do. That's how it is in the business. I have met artists who are real divas, but Mariah Carey is not one of them. She is a very sweet person, and what nobody sees off camera is the real person she is on the inside.

To be given permission to be confused
and remain confused
for as long as it takes would have been a huge gift.

You don't know how many people come up to me and say, 'This child was conceived listening to you.'

I am the baby in the family, and I always will be. I am actually very happy to have that position. But I still get teased. I don't mind that.

I have no clue why, but maybe sometimes when there's someone you don't hear from, it's the person you want to hear from the most.

I enjoy them both [singing and acting] a great deal. I have a passion for both. Maybe acting just a little bit more because it's more of a challenge for me, while music comes so easily.

I've never been one for keeping a journal, so my songs were my journals. They allowed me to express my feelings and let people know what was going on with me. I knew that somebody would relate.

I have a pretty bad temper. But you have to really push me to see it. But everybody has their things.

I've always been a tomboy. I've always liked to wear red, black, and white, and mostly pants.

In complete darkness, it is only knowledge and wisdom that separates us.

I wanted to talk about my life. There is so much. I was 18 when I made the record, and I had a lot to say.

Another side to me is this very sexual being. When I look back on my life, it's always been there. It's been there since I was 10 years old, having the imagination that I had.

I kinda see everyone as competition.

To a world sick with racism, get well soon.

I was two when we left Indiana, and I don't really remember it that well.

In 1977, at age ten, I was cast on the TV sitcom 'Good Times.' My character was Penny, an abused child in desperate need of love. I really didn't want to do the show. I didn't want to be away from my family.

It's so funny because I haven't set foot in a grocery store in years, you know. And that's so embarrassing ... I kept going, 'What's this?' "First of all I had the cart and I was riding down the aisles standing on it. And there's nobody there but us. And we got in the checkout. And I'm seeing this square thing, and I'm like, "What's this you guys?" And Missy just looked at me. And they said, "That's so you can use your credit card." And I said, "You can use your credit cards in grocery stores now?

When I'm getting ready for a tour, I'll work out with the dancers.

When I'm feeling down on myself or not feeling good about who I am, or maybe something happened and I'm feeling depressed, I eat to fill that void. Afterwards I'll beat myself up about it. I regret doing it, but I'll turn around and do it again.

I'm fine the way I am. There's nothing wrong with me.

I would hope my legacy would be bringing smiles to faces. Happiness with my music.

You can never be happy until you understand why you're doing what you're doing.

I wanted to be on my own and get out of the house. We were the kind of kids that - we - obeyed our parents. If they said no, you don't ask why.

My parents are very competitive, so we are very competitive as kids. But it's a good kind of competition; it's not a jealousy. You always want to do your best, and if it can't be you, you want it to be your brother or your sister, you know what I mean?

Being on 'Good Times' was the first time I was around a group of people that wasn't my family.

You've made love to my mind, now you gotta take me from behind.

I always knew that I could go deep. How deep? I don't know. But it always seems that with each character I take on, I'm challenged to go deeper than the last time, and then again deeper than the last time. This is the deepest I've ever been asked to dive. And to see how deep I actually went for this, and that I wasn't afraid to go there in order to give Tyler exactly what he envisioned for the character, which was pretty deep, that's what I discovered about myself.

If I wasn't singing, I'd probably be, probably an accountant.

My concepts are never bright ideas; they're never notions I think will sell or be trendy or attract new fans. I don't think that way. All I can do is sing from my life.

When I gained weight in 2005, my nutritionist was very worried. I was close to having diabetes.

I've never been into what am I going to do next, trying to reinvent myself.

I feel most people's sexuality is enormously complicated. That's what it means to be human. Wouldn't it be great if we honored that complexity rather than turn it into gossip or ridicule? Wouldn't it be great if we accepted sexual diversity, in ourselves and others, without condemning it?

There's other things I'd like to do. I probably won't tour for a very, very long time. It's something that you feel inside and that's the way I've been looking at everything.

I don't like to work out, and I get bored easily.

My dad taught us that there's no greater distance than that between first and second place.

Add to the world's confusion, we teach our kids rules that we don't adhere to ourselves.

I'm no expert. I have no psychic powers, and I sure don't possess any secret wisdom. I'm just Janet. I have strengths, weaknesses, fears, happiness, sadness. I experience joy and I experience pain. I'm highly emotional. I'm very vulnerable.

All those songs reflect all the people that live within me.

Does what you think of you determine your worth?

I feel everyone is put here for a reason. Everyone has a calling. I always thought my real calling was to help other people.

When I finally make up my mind that I want to do something, it's never been hard for me to do.

I would love to. A dream of mine is to produce films, as well as to produce content for television.

I'm convinced that we Black women possess a special indestructible strength that allows us to not only get down, but to get up, to get through, and to get over.

Big sisters and brothers ... I am telling you, it never changes.

To cut off the confusion and accept an answer just because it's too scary not to have an answer is a good way to get the wrong answer.

There are two things that really move me: music and acting. And I'm not talking about my music or watching myself as an actor, but listening to other people's music and watching other actors. There are so many different songs that have moved me. It all depends upon the mood that I'm in at that moment.

Every body type is different - that's what makes you unique. What makes you special is you, and you are different from the next person.

When I was younger, I thought you had to be in control of your own life. That takes a lot of discipline, hard work and focus. You just can't let it all fall by the wayside. Later on, I learned that God is really in control of everything. But you still have to put your best foot forward and be the best you can possibly be.

There is a moment when you get older when your metabolism slows down and you don't feel like working out any more, so you don't want to keep yourself fit any more, but that's your decision. Why should you be judged for it?

You don't have to hold onto the pain to hold onto the memory.

My first name ain't baby, it's Janet, Miss Jackson if you're nasty

I'm happy with the people that I have around me. And they've been friends of mine since I was young, for a very long time.

I do not have a child and all allegations saying so are false.

I'm just trying to get used to living on a fixed income. Now, it's going to get unfixed.

You can't hold the record forever, and I know that. I'm not stupid.

Control meant not only taking care of myself but living in a much less protected world. And doing that meant growing a tough skin.

I can't believe people got so upset at the sight of a single breast! America is so parochial, I may just have to move to Europe where people are more mature about things like that!

I have a very strong family.

To have someone to relate to and hopefully enjoy the music and get a positive message out of it, to make the best music that we possibly could, those were the goals.

I always write my music based on what is going on in my life at the time.

I think people really connect with the idea of someone who's gained and lost weight in this very public way, and also someone who's an emotional eater.

I get so much energy from the fans.

I can be happy with who I am, not what I should be, or what I might have been, or what someone tells me I must be.

I like myself a lot more than I used to. I had a very difficult time in my twenties especially. It was hard for me to look in the mirror and find something that I liked about myself.

I'm flattered that other artists consider me a role model.

Too many lives go up in smoke - It's nice to laugh but don't be the joke.

Tie me up, tie me down, make me moan real loud.

I'm scared to fall in love, afraid to love so fast, cuz everytime I fall in love, it seems to never last.

I am not a religious person, but I am spiritual. But I don't believe in things like guilt.

A lot of my friends they call me 'the therapist'. They come to me looking for advice. I must be doing something right because they keep coming back. But I'm not very good at kind of looking into my own world and trying to pick apart what is really wrong and fix those things. I like to kind of shy away from certain issues and turn away.

I don't have a lot of friends.

I like to collaborate on my music. The creative process is fun, and you get a lot of ideas from having discussions about it. Ultimately, the final decision is mine.

MTV was completely unaware of it. It was not my intention that it go as far as it did. I apologize to anyone offended
including the audience, MTV, CBS and the NFL.

I truly felt that was going to be my last tour. So here we are again and I'm saying this will probably be my last tour. That's truly the way I'm looking at it.

I believe in a higher power. I believe in inspiration.

It is my belief that we all have the need to feel special. It is this need that can bring out the best in us, yet the worst in us.

I was a very quiet kid. A really sweet kid, I might add.

I don't believe in luck ... It's persistence, hard work, and not forgetting your dream.

I was never pushed into the religion by my mother or anyone else. I made up my own mind when I was old enough. I am not a religious person, but I am spiritual.

Self-expression is my goal, I want to be real with my feelings. Singing and dancing and all the joy that goes with performing come from my heart. If I can't feel it, I won't do it.

It's two people that are in love with one another. What's the issue?

Ever since I was little, I loved to eat. I started eating when I wasn't hungry. My weight has always been up and down.

The pain is necessary. Sometimes pain is the teacher we require, a hidden gift of healing and hope.

By age seven, I used to comb my hair for performances, just pull my hair up into a bun. Granted, it wasn't a very intricate hairstyle. Still, to be that responsible and disciplined at age seven is unusual.

People tend to put entertainers on pedestals. We're human beings, just like you. You may see us smiling, and whether we have money or not, we still have bills to pay, we still have our stresses. I think a lot of people want to focus on others' shortcomings to make themselves feel better. And it's a very sad thing.

I just want you inside, baby, we don't need to talk about promises.

Some of my battles with weight have been very public. But most of them have been internal. Even at my thinnest, when my body was being praised, I wasn't happy with what I saw in the mirror or how I felt about myself.

You can tell someone who doesn't have love in their life, then someone who is in love.