Crack is cheap. I make too much money to ever smoke crack. Let’s get that straight. OK? We don’t do crack. We don’t do that. Crack is whack.
Cracking gum or sitting with your legs open were considered unacceptable… and I’d better not come back from the yard with scratched knees.
From the beginning, the camera and I were great friends. I know the eye of the camera is on me – eye to eye. It loves me, and I love it.
God gave me a voice to sing with, and when you have that, what other gimmick is there?
I almost wish I could be more exciting, that I could match what is happening out there to me.
I am not a person who wants to die.
I am so tired of this. I’m really sick of it… You mean to tell me that if I have a woman friend, I have to have a lesbian relationship with her? That’s bullshit. There are so many, many female artists who have women as their confidantes, and nobody questions that. So I realize that it’s like, ‘Whitney Houston – she’s popular, let’s fuck with her.’ I have denied it over and over again, and nobody’s accepted it. Or the media hasn’t.
I believe that children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside.
I can tell you that I am not self-destructive. I’m not a person who wants to die. I’m a person who has life, who wants to live. And I always have. And I wouldn’t mistake it for anything else other than that.
I decided long ago never to walk in anyone’s shadow; if I fail, or if I succeed at least I did as I believe.
I don’t think that my husband womanized anybody, because I know that if he wanted them, they definitely wanted him, you know. I don’t think, you know, it was about womanizing. I think boys will be boys, and they have their fun and they play. When they really become smart and they find a good woman, they marry her. And that’s what he did.
I finally faced the fact that it isn’t a crime not having friends. Being alone means you have fewer problems.
I had a miscarriage during the filming of ‘The Bodyguard.’ It was very painful, emotionally and physically… I was back on the set the next day. And it’s over. But I had Bobbi Kristina one year later, and I am blessed.
I just knew. I was like, ‘You don’t smell right. You don’t look right. Something’s going on.’ And then all this other stuff started coming out about him being with this one or that one or being too promiscuous. Dragging dirt into my home… We had a big, big giant portrait of me and him and my child. He cut my head off the picture. Stuff like that. And I thought, ‘This is really strange.’ So I figured, cutting my head off a picture, that was a little much for me.
I know that I could really kill for my daughter. I know because I’m living for her, so I’m fierce when it comes down to it.
I know what my color is. I was raised in a Black community with Black people, so that has never been a thing with me. Yet, I’ve gotten flak about being a pop success, but that doesn’t mean that I’m White… Pop music has never been all-White.
I like being a woman, even in a man’s world. After all, men can’t wear dresses, but we can wear the pants.
I said I wanted to grab for the simple things in life. I wanted to find a guy, get married, have children. And she in her wisdom said, ‘Yeah, well, that’ll all come to you… but honey, it’s going to take time, and all Mommy can tell you is God knows when it’s right for you. And when it’s right, He’ll deliver’.
I wanted to be a teacher. I love children, so I wanted to deal with children. Then I wanted to be a veterinarian. But by the age of 10 or 11, when I opened my mouth and said, ‘Oh God, what’s this?’ I kind of knew teaching and being a veterinarian were going to have to wait. What’s in your soul is in your soul.
I was talking to Joe Pesci the other night – we’re both from New Jersey, and we were talking about being a regular person years ago and how we wanted the fame and fortune. But then we got it—we lost our lives. He wondered if we’d made the right choice. I think it’s fair to say it’s been more than I bargained for.
I’m like an American princess. White America wanted me to marry someone white. They don’t understand why I’d want a strong black man.
I’m not crazy about arenas just because I can sell them out. It doesn’t do anything for my ego at all. I want to play places where people don’t have to sit in the nosebleed seats and wonder what the hell is going on.
I’m proud of being a mother, a wife, a daughter, and a sister, and a lover and a friend… We’re all God’s children.
In grammar school some of the girls had problems with me. My face was too light. My hair was too long. It was the black-consciousness period, and I felt really bad. I finally faced the fact that it isn’t a crime not having friends. Being alone means you have fewer problems. When I decided to be a singer, my mother warned me I’d be alone a lot. Basically we all are. Loneliness comes with life.
I’ve turned down a lot of arena dates because I’ve done the big-arena thing. Now, I want to do something where people can feel me and I can feel them.
Love is a contact sport.
My business is sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll. You know? I mean, my friends, we have a good time. But as you get older, you get wiser. You know? You stop a lot of the kid stuff. I had no time to grow up, had no time to party. I didn’t even date in my, date in my 20s. It was rough… I think I kind of reverted back as I got older. And I said, ‘Well, I’m just gonna party, you know?’ It was kind of a rebel in me, you know?
My mother taught me that when you stand in the truth and someone tells a lie about you, don’t fight it.
No, I’m not a drug addict, and neither is my husband. If that were so, you’d get a lot less work out of me. It would show in the performances and in the work.
Nobody likes to be picked on. Nobody.
The last time I toured was just before I’d had my baby. I’d just come off The Bodyguard. It rocketed, I got pregnant, had a baby. Everything happened so fast. It was too much to take at the moment… There was a lot of success at a very important time in my life. I think then I was more in wonder of what was going to happen.
There were some times we’d laugh our tails off. We had a ball. Sometimes you do have a good time. But when it gets to the point where you’re sitting in your home and you’re just trying to cover what you don’t want people to know. It’s painful. And then you want more just so that you don’t let anybody see you cry. Or anybody to see we’re not happy.
They don’t say I sound like Mariah Carey, they say Mariah Carey sounds like me, you dig what I’m saying? So I don’t feel like I’m in competition with these people. Madonna and I certainly aren’t in competition. Mary J. Blige – it’s her own thing. She is the queen of hip-hop.
Well, I’ve gone from singing too white to R&B diva, and now I’m hip-hop. I guess it’s flattering to know that I can sing it all.
When I decided to be a singer, my mother warned me I’d be alone a lot. Basically we all are. Loneliness comes with life.
When I heard Aretha, I could feel her emotional delivery so clearly. It came from down deep within. That’s what I wanted to do.
When I started singing, it was almost like speaking.
You get that love from the people. It lets me know that all the madness I go through, all the stuff that the business has to offer with all its madness; it makes it worthwhile.
You learn, you grow up, and you become your own woman. But we’re still very close. When other people are talking shit to my ear, I know my mother won’t blow smoke up my ass, and I know she’ll tell me the truth. She’s honest with me.
