Great Throughts Treasury

"People all over the world are the same everywhere I go, I give in to this, I give in to that, every day it bothers me so, am I in a bad situation? People taking me to the extreme, am I being used? I just need a clue, I don't know which way to go."

"People always told me, 'Be careful what you do, don't go around breaking young girls' hearts,' And momma always told me, 'Be careful who you love, be careful what you do, 'cause a lie becomes the truth.'"

"Online banking account hijacking is the fastest-growing form of identity theft we monitor... Regulators want to get in front of the problem rather than be reactive."

"Once at a record store in San Francisco, over a thousand kids showed up. They pushed forward and broke a window. A big piece of glass fell on top of this girl. And the girl's throat was slit. She just got slit. And I remember there was blood everywhere. Oh God, so much blood. And she grabbed her throat and was bleeding and everyone just ignored her. Why? Because I was there and they wanted to grab at me and get my autograph. I wonder whatever happened to that girl."

"Planet Earth, gentle and blue with all my heart, I love you."

"Please go for your dreams. Whatever your ideals, you can become whatever you want to become."

"Please keep an open mind and let me have my day in court."

"Say say say what you want but don't play games with my affection. Take take take what you need but don't leave me with no direction."

"She got me workin' day and night, and I've been workin' from sun-up to midnight."

"She was more like a beauty queen from a movie scene, I said, 'Don't mind, but what do you mean I am the one, who will dance, on the floor, in the round?'"

"People think they know me, but they don`t. Not really. Actually, I am one of the loneliest people on this earth. I cry sometimes, because it hurts. It does. To be honest, I guess you could say that it hurts to be me."

"People say I'm strange that way, 'cause I love such elementary things, it's been my fate to compensate for the childhood I've never known."

"People write negatives things, cause they feel that's what sells. Good news to them, doesn't sell."

"People who grew up as child stars have the same thing in common. You're cute, they love you; you go through the awkward stage, they don't accept you anymore. Very few make the transition to adult star,"

"She's saying that's ok, Hey baby, do what you want I'll be your night lovin' thing I'll be the freak you can taunt. And I don't care what you say I want to go too far. I'll be your everything If you make me a star... Dirty Diana."

"Snakes are very misunderstood. Snakes, I suggest, may be the oldest victims of bad press."

"So let love take us through the hours, I won't be complainin' 'cause this is love power."

"Sometimes I cry cause I'm confused, is this a fact of being used? There is no life for me at all,'cause I give myself at beck and call."

"The greatest education in the world is watching the masters at work."

"The minute I started breaking the all-time record in record sales?I broke Elvis's records, I broke Beatles records?the minute it became the all-time best-selling album in the history of the Guinness Book of World Records, overnight they called me a freak. They called me a homosexual. They called me a child molester. They said I bleached my skin. They made everything to turn the public against me."

"The proceedings have been a nightmare for my family."

"The Wizard of Oz has secrets that are just too much. Or Peter Pan ? the whole 'lost boys' thing is just incredible. They?re not childlike at all, they?re really, really deep; you can rule your life by them. Or say 'child-like', because children are the most brilliant people of all, that?s why they relate to those stories so well. Fairy-tales are wonderful."

"So, just leave me alone, leave me alone, leave me alone, leave me alone, stop it, just stop doggin' me around."

"The industry, it's at a crossroad, there's a transformation going on. People are confused, what's going on, how to distribute and sell music. The internet kinda threw everybody for a real loop. 'Cause it's so powerful, kids love it so much. The whole world is at their fingertips, on their lap. Anything they want to know, anyone they want to communicate with, any music, any movies... The thing is it just took everybody for a loop. Right now, all these Starbucks deals and Wal-Mart deals, direct to artists, I don't know if that's the answer. I think the answer is just phenomenal, great music. Just reaching the masses. I think people are still searching. There's not a real music revolution going on right now, either. But when it's there, people will break down a wall to get to it. I mean, 'cause before Thriller, it was the same kind of thing. People were not buying music. It helped to bring everybody back into the stores, so when it happens, it happens."

"Stop this agony of wishing. Play it out. Don't think, don't hesitate. Curving back within yourself Just create... Just create."

"Speechless, speechless, that's how you make me feel, when I'm with you I am far away, and nothing is for real."

"Tell the angels no, I don?t wanna leave my baby alone. I don?t want nobody else to hold you. That?s a chance I?ll take, Baby I?ll stay, Heaven can wait. No, if the angels took me from this earth I would tell them bring me back to her It?s a chance I?ll take, maybe I?ll stay, Heaven can wait"

"Then won't you slap my face. Well, they say the sky's the limit, and to me that's really true, but, my friend you have seen nothing, just wait 'til I get through."

"There were times when I had great times with my brothers, pillow fights and things, but I was, used to always cry from loneliness."

"There?s a whole psychological reason for those cartoons about good against evil. We have Superman and all those other hero people, so that we can go out into life and try to be something. I?ve got most of Disney?s animated movies on video-tapes, and when we watch them. Oh, I could just eat it, eat it? Jimmy Cricket, Pinocchio, Mickey Mouse ? these are world-known characters. Some of the greatest political figures have come to the United States to meet them."

"There's a Mother's Day and there's a Father's Day, but there's no Children's Day. It would mean a lot. World peace."

"These people wanted to exploit my concern for children by threatening to destroy what I believe in and what I do. I have been a vulnerable target for those who want money."

"They did it to try and belittle me, to try and to take away my pride. But I went through the whole system with them. And at the end, I - I wanted the public to know that I was okay, even though I was hurting."

"They print my message in the Saturday Sun, I had to tell them I ain't second to none, and I told about equality, and it?s true, either you're wrong or you're right."

"They say that parenting is like dancing. You take one step, your child takes another."

"The record companies really do conspire against the artists. They steal. They cheat. They do whatever they can, especially the black artists.? Sony's Tommy Mottola is the president of the record division. He is mean. He is a racist, and he's very, very, very devilish."

"The way you make me feel, you really turn me on, you knock me off my feet, my lonely days are gone."

"To give someone a piece of your heart, is worth more than all the wealth in the world."

"We can change the world tomorrow. This could be a better place. If you don't like what I'm sayin'."

"We look high and low for God, but somehow He's not there. So we blame Him and tell ourselves that He must have forgotten us. Or else we decide that He left us long ago, if He was ever around. How strange, the little fish said, to miss what is everywhere. Very strange, the old whale agreed. Doesn't it remind you of fish who say they're thirsty?"

"We think the collectivity of the efforts the secretary has described today will underscore our commitment to implement significant and far-reaching ambitions for changing the dynamic regarding illegal immigration,"

"We will continue to make sure these gunslingers get a high bond. This is Selma, not the 'Rifleman' show."

"Well Brooke, I've always liked her, and when I was little I used to stay with Diana Ross, me and my brothers stayed with her for years and I never said, but I always had a crush on her."

"Well, especially now I come to realize - and then - I would do my schooling which was three hours with a tutor and right after that I would go to the recording studio and record, and I'd record for hours and hours until it's time to go to sleep."

"Well, you don't get to do things that other children get to do, having friends and slumber parties and buddies. There were none of that for me. I didn't have friends when I was little. My brothers were my friends."

"What about sunrise, what about rain? What about all the things that you said we were to gain? What about flowering fields, is there a time? What about all the dreams that you said was yours and mine?"

"What happened to truth? Did it go out of style?"

"What I do when I write is that I'll do a raggedy, rough version just to hear the chorus, just to see how much I like the chorus. If it works for me that way when it's raggedy, then I'll know it will just work... Listen to that, that's at home. Janet, Randy, Me... Janet and I are going "Whoo, Whoo... Whoo, Whoo..." I do that same process with every song. It's the melody, it's the melody that's most important, if the melody can sell me, then I'll go to the next step. The idea is to transcribe from what's in your mentality onto tape. If you take a song like "Billie Jean," Where the bass line is the prominent, dominant piece, the protagonist of the song, the main driving riff that you hear, getting the character of the riff to be just the way you want it to be, that takes a lot of time. Listen, you're hearing four basses on there, doing four different personalities, and that's what gives it character, but it takes a lot of work."

"When all life is seen as divine, everyone grows wings."

"When I look into the eyes of my Prince, and my daughter Paris, Michael Jackson I see miracles and I see beauty."