Phrases

01. 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.

02. 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.

03. 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.

04. Dreams can become a reality when we possess a vision that is characterized by the willingness to work hard, a desire for excellence, and a belief in our right and our responsiblity to be equal members of society.

05. Believe in yourself. Have faith in yourself because no one else is going to.

06. In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don’t let your eyes deceive you.

07. The greatest achievement to any human being is to love God, yourself, and others.

08. You can’t worry about pleasing other people; you have to please yourself.

09. Fear is the one emotion that unleashed can destroy anything and anyone.

10. I can express gratitude for the simple act of being able to breathe in and breathe out. I can move away from darkness and depression to light and hope. 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 am me, the true me; you are you, the true you – and that’s good. That’s beautiful. That’s enough.

11. 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.

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

13. I’ve never tried pot; I’ve never tried anything.

14. 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.

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

16. 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.

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

18. 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?

19. Everywhere I go, every smile I see, I know you are there smilin’ back at me. Dancin’ in moonlight, I know you are free ’cause I can see your star shinin’ down on me.

20. If people want to know the truth, why don’t they just come to me and ask?

21. I have so much more confidence in myself now than I ever did before.

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

23. Theres nothing more depressing than having everything and still feeling sad. We must learn to water our spiritual garden.

24. 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.

25. When you hear bad things about yourself, just put your energies into something else; it’s no good crying about it. Just put it into your music – it’ll make you stronger.

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

27. 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.

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

29. 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.

30. I like to have a lot of fun. I just don’t see myself as being sexy. It’s more sass – more attitude – than sex.

31. 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.

31. I work with a lot of different charities, and by that I don’t mean merely by giving money, but by really getting involved hands-on. I’ve always said that one of the reasons why I was put on this Earth was to help people. That’s something I’ve always enjoyed both here in America and if I have the opportunity when I’m traveling out of the country. For example, I like to visit orphanages to spend time with the children. That’s very important to me.

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

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

34. Competition is great. And as long as it’s friendly and not a malicious thing, then I think it’s cool.

35. You dont have to hold on to the pain, to hold on to the memory.

36. To a world sick with racism, get well soon.

37. I’m a true believer in prayer, a big believer in prayer.

38. A lot of people who start work at a very young age never grow up because they never got that opportunity to be a child, so they hold on to that and still do a lot of childish, silly things.

39. There are artists, true performers that have come before me who have been a big inspiration to me. I hope I do the same for others.

40. 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.

41. It’s very hard trying to have love and a career at the same time. For those who can, great, but I can’t.

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

43. No word is absolutely wrong or dirty or insulting. It all depends upon context and intention.

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

45. 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.

46. 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.

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

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

49. I was sheltered, and there’s good and bad to that. The good was not getting into the drugs and the alcohol and the really sorry stuff, and the bad was finally coming out into the real world and trying to deal with it, which was hard for me.

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

51. Marvin Gaye is our John Lennon. The longer he’s gone, the more young people appreciate his art. ‘What’s Going On’ was a work of genius far ahead of it’s time.

52. I love you – but don’t touch me.

53. Damita Jo. Jo. That’s my middle name. It’s let in about the different characters that live within me. They say we have 200 characters that we portray with different people.

54. I’ve talked about sex a great deal in my music for a great while now. I feel very comfortable with it.

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

56. Too many lives go up in smoke – It’s nice to laugh but don’t be the joke.

57. You get yourself up for it somehow, and your endurance and the crowd gets you up, too.

58. I was very independent growing up, but there were things that were bothering me that I never told anybody. I would talk to our animals at home.

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

60. 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.

61. Recording is more autobiographical than acting. It’s me – either how I’m feeling then or once felt at some point in my life. It’s all me.

62. When I date different guys, I just have to stay away – and not let myself fall. Because if I do, it’s over.

63. I feel that when two people are married – not that you have to totally give up your career – you have to spend time with one another, get to know each other more, just share things with each other.

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

65. I can feel your body pressed against my body. When you start to poundin’, love to feel you throbbin’.

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

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

68. I always get bored with my hair. That’s why I would always change it throughout my career.

69. Remember one rule, no rule.

70. I was out once and had wine and I got sick to my stomach, and I vowed I would never drink again.

71. There are two sides of the Velvet Rope. Those who want to be on the other side and those who are on the other side.

72. The only thing that bothers me is that the girls come up to me and say, “I’m dating your ex-husband.” I’m happy that he’s dating girls and getting out.

73. 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.

74. I do want to get married again, and I want to have kids. And this time, I really want to do it right.

75. I lose things all the time. I used to lose my license all the time before I put a place in my car for it.

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

77. I still have certain goals that I want. Grammies… Other awards… an Oscar one day.

78. Food has always brought me comfort and the bingeing is triggered when I’m in a space that is not positive.

79. When I do get married again, I’m just going to take time off.

80. 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.

81. I wanted to be a jockey. I’m serious. First time I got on a horse, I loved it. That’s what I wanted to be, but my dad asked me to start performing with my family.

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

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

84. I don’t have a lot of friends.

85. I can be an emotional eater. Of late, I have been doing that, yes. It started when I was very little. My brothers were gone on tour a lot, and I would miss them so much.

86. 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.

87. You have to feel good about yourself.

88. I like to read. Autobiographies.

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

90. 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.

91. 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.

92. Does what you think of you determine your worth?

93. 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.

94. I think it’s been a little difficult at times for the audience, because they’ve told me they see me as a family member. So to see your little sister sing about sex… I think they are pretty used to it now.

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

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

97. People do see me as sweet and innocent. Not to say that I am not those things. But I have other sides to me.

98. That’s a part of me going back to what I used to do.

99. I have a very strong family.