R B Singers

"Ever since I was a little boy, I would study composition. And it was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky that influenced me the most. If you take an album like Nutcracker Suite, every song is killer, every one. So I said to myself, 'Why can't there be a pop album where every...' — People used to do an album where you'd get one good song, and the rest were like B-sides, they'd call them "album songs" — and I'd say to myself 'Why can't every one be like a hit song? Why can't every song be so great that people would want to buy it if you could release it as a single?. So I always tried to strive for that. That was the purpose for the next album."

"I always wanted to do music that influences and inspires each generation. Lets face it, who wants mortality?"

"In a world filled with hate, we must still dare to hope. In a world filled with anger, we must still dare to comfort. In a world filled with despair, we must still dare to dream. And in a world filled with distrust, we must still dare to believe."

"Lies run sprints but the truth runs marathons."

"I'm just like anyone. I cut and I bleed. And I embarrass easily. I am speechless about the idea of putting music fans in jail for downloading music. It is wrong to illegally download, but the answer cannot be jail. Here in America we create new opportunities out of adversity, not punitive laws, and we should look to new technologies like Apple's new Music Store for solutions. This way, innovation continues to be the hallmark of America. It is the fans that drive the success of the music business."

"I put a lot of mannequins in my room in the past, and I still have mannequins in my room, because I used to be very lonely, painfully lonely. You have no idea. I used to walk the streets looking for people to talk to. I'm talking about the height of one's career…. I would walk up to them, strangers, and say, "will you be my friend?" They'd go, "my god, Michael Jackson!" and that's not what I wanted."

"Not only were we practicing, we were nervous rehearsing, because he would sit in a chair with a belt in his hand, and if you didn't do it the right way, he would tear you up. Really get you...We were terrified of him. So terrified, I can't tell you. I don't think he realized how scared...scared...I mean SCARED. So scared that I would regurgitate. (with emphasis) Mmm-hmm. (reporter asks Michael what caused the reaction) His presence, just seeing him...And I was so fast, he wouldn't catch me half the time, but when he did, oh my God, it was bad."

"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. This is all complete, complete conspiracy: you have to know that. You know, it's time for (unintelligible) It's time for a change. Let's not leave this building and forget what has been said. Put it into your heart. Put it into your subconscious mind, and let's do something about it. We have to, we have to. Because it's been a long LONG time coming, and a change has got to come. So let's, let's hold our torches high, and get the RESPECT that we deserve. I love you, I ~love~ you. Please don't put this in your heart today and forget it tomorrow. Or we will not accomplish our purpose. We will not have accomplished our purpose if that happens. This has got to stop."

"...so much joy to the world...and the system, meaning the record companies, totally took advantage of me. This is very important, what we're fighting for, because I'm tired, I'm really REALLY tired of manipulation. I'm tired of the how the press is manipulating everything that's been happening to this situation. They do not tell the truth, they lie. They manipulate, they manipulate our history books. The history books are not true: it's a lie. The history books are lying. You need to know that, you must know that. All the forms of popular music: from jazz to hip-hop to be-bop to .. to SOUL. To um, uh, dances, from the cake-walk. to the jitter-bug, to the Charleston, to uh, breakdancing. All of these are forms of black dancing."

"I know my race. I just look in the mirror. I know I'm black."

"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."

"I have begun to see that even my father's harshness was a kind of love. An imperfect love, to be sure, but love nonetheless. He pushed me because he loved me, because he wanted no man to ever look down at his offspring. Now with time, rather than bitterness I feel blessing.… My initial fury has slowly given way to forgiveness."

"I have no problem with them imitating [me]. It's a compliment. Everybody has to start out looking up to someone. For me it was James Brown, Sammy Davis Jr., Jackie Wilson, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly."

"Michael Jackson: There's a time for this, and this you should not do. You should not go out and say, 'Oh he's Jacko'. I'm not a "Jacko". I'm "Jackson". Walters: How do you feel when people call you... Jackson: Yeah, "Wacko Jacko". Where'd that come from? Some English tabloid. I have a heart and I have feelings, I feel that, when you do that to me. It's not nice. Don't do it. I'm not a wacko."

"Do not judge a person, Do not pass a judgement on anyone unless you've talked to them one-on-one. I don't care what the story is... OK, number one. There, as I know of, there is no such thing as skin bleaching... I have a skin disorder that destroys the pigmentation of the skin, it's something that I cannot help, OK? But, when people make up stories that I don't want to be who I am, it hurts me. It's a problem for me, I can't control it. .. Yeah, I think James Brown is a genius you know, when he's with the Famous Flames, unbelievable. I used to watch him on television and I used to get angry at the cameraman because whenever he would really start to dance they would be on a close-up so I couldn't see his feet. I'd shout "show him show him," so I could watch and learn."

"If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with."

"I feel fortunate for being that instrument through which music flows. I'm just the source through which it comes. I can't take credit for it because it's God's work. He's just using me as the messenger."

"Consciousness expresses itself through creation. This world we live in is the dance of the Creator. Dancers come and go in the twinkling of an eye but the dance lives on. On many an occasion when I am dancing, I have felt touched by something sacred. In those moments, I felt my spirit soar and become one with everything that exists. I become the stars and the moon. I become the lover and the beloved. I become the victor and the vanquished. I become the master and the slave. I become the singer and the song. I become the knower and the known. I keep on dancing and then, it is the eternal dance of creation. The Creator and the creation merge into one wholeness of joy. I keep on dancing — until there is only … the dance."

"Like the old Indian proverb says, do not judge a man until you've walked 2 moons in his moccasins. Most people don't know me, that is why they write such things in which most is not true. I cry very very often because it hurts and I worry about the children, all my children all over the world, I live for them. If a man could say nothing against a character but what he could prove, history could not be written. Animals strike not from malice but because they want to live, it is the same with those who criticize, they desire our blood not our pain. But still I must achieve I must seek truth in all things. I must endure for the power I was sent forth, for the world for the children. But have mercy, for I've been bleeding a long time now. MJ."

"I am not prejudiced, it's just time for the first Black King now."

"Why not just tell people I'm an alien from Mars. Tell them I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight. They'll believe anything you say, because you're a reporter. But if I, Michael Jackson, were to say, "I'm an alien from Mars and I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight," people would say, "Oh, man, that Michael Jackson is nuts. He's cracked up. You can't believe a damn word that comes out of his mouth.""

"I wake up from dreams and go, 'Wow, put this down on paper.' The whole thing is strange. You hear the words, everything is right there in front of your face. And you say to yourself, 'I'm sorry, I just didn't write this. It's there already.' That's why I hate to take credit for the songs I've written. I feel that somewhere, someplace, it's been done and I'm just a courier bringing it into the world. I really believe that. I love what I do. I'm happy at what I do. It's escapism."

"How could you leave, girl? 'Cause love for us was meant to be, Then you must be seein' Some other guy instead of me."

"You say that workin is what a man's supposed to do. But I say you ain't right if I can't give sweet love to you."

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

"Keep on with the force, don't stop Don't stop 'til you get enough."

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

"Lovely is the feeling now, Fever, temperature's rising now, Power is the force, the vow, That makes it happen, It asks no questions how."

"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."

"I try to do what's right for me, But no-one sees the way I see, And then I try to please them so, But how far can this pleasing go?"

"Let's dance, let's shout! Shake your body down to the ground."

"I don't know what's gonna happen to you, baby, But I do know that I love you, You walk around this town with your head all up in the sky, And I do know that I want you."

"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."

"Don't be afraid to be different."

"When I was a kid, I was denied not only a childhood, but I was denied love. When I reached out to hug my father, he didn't hug me back. When I was scared on an airplane, he didn't put his arm around me and say, "Michael, don't worry. It's going to be OK." When I was scared to go on stage, he said, "get your ass on that stage." … I will never deny a child love. If it means that I have to be crucified or put in jail for it, then that's just what they're going to have to do."

"You gotta know how to get to people's heart"

"I was born with music inside me. That's the only explanation I know of, since none of my relatives could sing or play an instrument. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me — like food or water."

"Before I begin, let me say right here and now that I'm a country boy. And, man, I mean the real backwoods! That's at the start of the start of the thing, and that's at the heart of the thing."

"Every music has its own soul, Quincy"

"You better live every day like your last because one day you're going to be right."

"Do it right or don't do it at all. That comes from my mom. If there's something I want to do, I'm one of those people that won't be satisfied until I get it done. If I'm trying to sing something and I can't get it, I'm going to keep at it until I get where I want it."

"I started to sing like myself — as opposed to imitating Nat Cole, which I had done for a while — when I started singing like Ray Charles, it had this spiritual and churchy, this religious or gospel sound. It had this holiness and preachy tone to it. It was very controversial. I got a lot of criticism for it."

"The fact of the matter is, you don't give up what's natural. Anything I've fantasized about, I've done."

"Music has been around a long time, and there's going to be music long after Ray Charles is dead. I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind. If it's a big record, that's the frosting on the cake, but music's the main meal."

"Rhythm and blues used to be called race music. … This music was going on for years, but nobody paid any attention to it."

"But now if I can wrap myself up in that song, and when that song gets to be a part of me, and affects me emotionally, then the emotions that I go through, chances are I’ll be able to communicate to you. Make the people out there become a part of the life of this song that you’re singing about. That’s soul when you can do that."

"Soul is when you take a song and make it a part of you — a part that's so true, so real, people think it must have happened to you. … It's like electricity — we don't really know what it is, do we? But it's a force that can light a room. Soul is like electricity, like a spirit, a drive, a power."

"Yeah yeah, what'd I say, all right Well, tell me what'd I say, yeah Tell me what'd I say right now Tell me what'd I say"

"Hey mama, don't you treat me wrong, Come and love your daddy all night long. All right now, hey hey, all right. See the girl with the diamond ring; She knows how to shake that thing. All right now now now, hey hey, hey hey. Tell your mama, tell your pa, I'm gonna send you back to Arkansas. Oh yes, ma'm, you don't do right, don't do right."

"I got a woman way over town, That's good to me, Oh yeah!"