Whitney Houston Quotes

1. My mother taught me that when you stand in the truth and someone tells a lie about you, don't fight it.

-->

2. I like being a woman, even in a man's world. After all, men can't wear dresses, but we can wear the pants.

3. 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.

4. From the beginning, the camera and I were great friends. It loves me, and I love it.

5. God gave me a voice to sing with, and when you have that, what other gimmick is there?

6. I almost wish I could be more exciting, that I could match what is happening out there to me.

7. Nobody likes to be picked on. Nobody.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. Nobody makes me do anything I don't wanna do, it's my decision. So the biggest devil is me, I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy.

12. I am not self destructive. I'm not a person who wants to die, I'm a person who has life and wants to live.

13. Being around people like Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick and Roberta Flack...had a great impact on me as a singer, as a performer, as a musician.

14. 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. And I feel the same about my husband and my family. I'm just fiercely protective. It's like, that's my lair and nobody messes with my lair.

15. No matter what I'll keep it real you know. Time for me to do it on my own.

 

16. I've got a good man. He takes care of me. I don't have to be scared of anything because I know he will kick every ass...disrespect him and you've got a problem.

17. Growing around (great musicians), you just can't help it. I identified with it immediately. It was something that was so natural to me that when I started singing, it was almost like speaking.

18. Contrary to belief, I do the hitting, he doesn't. He has never put his hands on me. He is not a woman-beater. We are crazy for one another. I mean crazy in love, love, love, love, love. When we're fighting, it's like that's love for us. We're fighting for our love.

19. I've read about myself and my husband and my family, to the point where they've called my parents, they've called my brothers, offering money to tell stories. They call friends of mine. I'd just like for them to just…don't badger us. Don't scrutinize us. We have children and they have to live, too. It's not fair.

20. 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. (Rolling Stone, 1993)

21. 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. (Time Magazine, 1987)

22. Cracking gum or sitting with your legs open were considered unacceptable… and I'd better not come back from the yard with scratched knees. (Time Magazine, 1987)

23. You learn, you grow up, and you become your own woman. But we're still very close. When other people are talking s**t to my ear, I know my mother won't blow smoke up my a**, and I know she'll tell me the truth. She's honest with me. (Rolling Stone, 1993)

24. I was scared to death... I was aware of people staring at me. No one moved. They seemed almost in a trance. I just stared at the clock in the center of the church. When I finished, everyone clapped and started crying. From then on, I knew God had blessed me. (Time Magazine, 1987)

25. Critics would say that Clive told me what to do and how to do it, because that's all bulls**t. I don't like it when they see me as this little person who doesn't know what to do with herself - like I have no idea what I want, like I'm just a puppet and Clive's got the strings. That's bullsh*t. That's demeaning to me, because that ain't how it is, and it never was. And never will be. I wouldn't be with anybody who didn't respect my opinion. Nobody makes me do anything I don't want to do…Clive and I work well together… We get on each other's nerves sometimes, but we've been together 10 years now. Anybody can get on anybody's nerves over that long a time. (Rolling Stone, 1993)

26. 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 bullsh*t. 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 f**k with her." I have denied it over and over again, and nobody's accepted it. Or the media hasn't. (Rolling Stone, 1993)

27. 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. (As told by Sister 2 Sister publisher Jamie Foster Brown to Redbook Magazine, 1996)

28. 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. (interview with Barbara Walters, 1993)

29. 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. (interview with Barbara Walters, 1993)

30. They're devils to me…and they're out to eat my flesh. (on the media - Redbook Magazine, 1996)

31. 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? (on becoming a rebel - interview with Diane Sawyer, "Primetime," 2002)

32. 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. (interview with Diane Sawyer, "Primetime," 2002)

33. 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. (interview with Oprah Winfrey, 2009, oprah.com)

34. I have so many good memories of spending time with him. I've known his family for so many years. For at least 20. I thought: "This can't be true. This can't be true." I knew he was on painkillers at one time. I didn't know how far and how deep it was. I just remember doing the anniversary special, the 30th anniversary, and I remember looking at Michael… and then looking at myself going: "No, I don't want this to be like this. This can't happen. Not both of us". (her fear of facing Michael Jackson's fate: "This Can't Happen (to) Both of Us" - interview with Oprah Winfrey, 2009, oprah.com)

35. I consider (g)rowing organic fruit with my daughter on a little island on the beach and everything, living the simple life. You have to understand, I have been all around the world…and I'd done it all at that point in time, or I thought. However, I wasn't remembering the gift that God had given me. I had totally put all that aside. And my daughter was growing up before my eyes, and I just wanted to grab hold of that. (interview with Oprah Winfrey, 2009, oprah.com)

36. 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. (on the end of her marriage and Bobby Brown's alleged infidelity - interview with Oprah Winfrey, 2009, oprah.com)

37. Love is a contact sport.

38. I don't sing white. I don't sing black. I just sing.

39. I can just give my influence as best as I can. You know, there'll be the ups and there'll be the downs and there'll be the all arounds. But you have your belief and your faith and your determination; the encouragers, the people who encourage you to do the best that you can.

40. You have to know when to slow that train down and kinda just sit back and just relax for a minute. You know what I'm saying? And kinda have a life.

41. I was singing by the time I was 7 years old. I'm the daughter of Cissy Houston. I'm the cousin of Dionne Warwick. My cousin Deedee was a singer. My whole family sang, I come from a family of singers.

42. I feel so blessed to just have done what I had done. To be able to just use what God has given me is a blessing. You know, never mind the Grammys, never mind the records, never mind all of that. Just to be able to sing.

43. You know, when I stand on stage and when I look out at the audience and I'm singing and I look at people's faces, I know what's in their hearts and I know what they're feeling. And as long as that's happening, for me as long as I keep that rapport, I'll keep singing.

44. Bobby wants to have a lot of kids. Five would be a definite mistake. I'm only kidding. I love kids. Kids have a way of bringing purity back to life.

45. Everybody wants to put me with somebody, you know?

46. Fans still want to hear lyrics. I have a generation of people who know me from the 1980s and a generation from now who know me from It's Not Right But It's Okay.

47. He's like my dad in a lot of ways. I call him my industry father. He's guided me through my career.

48. He's nothing like everybody says be is-that's what tripped me out. He came to my party, and he was such a gentleman.

49. I am gonna make some noise. I just think about me and the best that I can be. I can't live up to everybody's expectations but my own.

50. I don't really have much to complain about.

51. I knew that whatever I wanted to do with my life, marriage wasn't going to be a part of that for a long time.

52. I was the primary mover of my career. I told my people to give me a plan and I'd follow And it worked. I traveled and smiled, and it worked.

53. I would rather not talk about my personal life.

54. I'd have all kinds of conversations with Aretha and Wilson Pickett. I just remember being in an atmosphere of total creativity.

55. I'm more relaxed now. I'm an older girl now.

56. I'm older, a wife, a mother. I know what I'm doing. I'm so glad I'm past the I-don't-know stage. I feel good. I feel secure.

57. It was strange not to have my father there, but he lives just 10 minutes away. Besides, even if you're not together physically, the love never dies.

58. One of us has to be home when the other's away. When I'm away, Bobby's home, and when he's away, I'm home.

59. 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.

60. 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.

61. This ain't about publicity. I don't want to spend the rest of my life with somebody I thought was just gonna give me publicity. I've got enough of that on my own.

62. Today, it's hip hop. Hip hop has taken over. With every race, creed and color, it's taken over. It's what it's about.

63. When I did Saving All My Love, I was going through a terrible love affair. He was married, and that will never work out for anybody. Never, no way. Forget about it.

64. When you're older, you learn what it's about to relax and enjoy. You're not so young, not so eager. Some of the mistakes you made are gone. They're over!

65. Whose business is it if you're gay or like dogs? What others do shouldn't matter. Let people talk. It doesn't bother me because I know I'm not gay.

66. You don't have a baby based on that publicity madness. People don't live like that. Especially black people who were raised in families with morals and standards and integrity.

67. You go according to what people dictate. They like it; they want to hear me. I put the tickets on sale and they bought them.

68. You see me onstage, you see me on the video. But you don't see the people here in this house. You don't see us sitting back watching TV, drinking a beer, just coolin' out.

69. You've got to realize that we've got to get up and brush our teeth. We've got to wash our behinds. There is relativity here.

What do you think of Whitney Houston's quotes?

Feel free to comment and share this blog post if you find it interesting!