I've never been one for keeping a journal, so my songs were my journals. They allowed me to express my feelings and let people know what was going on with me. I knew that somebody would relate.
Interpretation
Music serves as a personal outlet for expressing emotions and experiences.
In this quote, Janet Jackson reflects on her choice not to keep a traditional journal, instead using her songs as a means of documenting her life and emotions. She highlights the connection between her personal experiences and the impact they can have on others, suggesting that through her music, she creates a shared understanding and emotional resonance with her audience.
In practice
During a speech about the importance of self-expression, one might use this quote to illustrate how art can convey personal experiences.
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.
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.
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?
Some of my battles with weight have been very public. But most of them have been internal. Even at my thinnest, when my body was being praised, I wasn't happy with what I saw in the mirror or how I felt about myself.
My introduction to art history was like everybody else's. You see an art history book that has works by Rembrandt and Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Yes, these things are great. But I don't see a reflection of myself in any of these things I'm looking at.
A playwright must be his own audience. A novelist may lose his readers for a few pages; a playwright never dares lose his audience for a minute.
Once a novel gets going and I know it is viable, I don't then worry about plot or themes. These things will come in almost automatically because the characters are now pulling the story.
Every time I write these words they become a taboo,_x000D_ _x000D_ Making sure my punctuation curve, every letter here's true,_x000D_ _x000D_ Living my life in the margin, and that metaphor was proof.
Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment.
Sweet bird, that shun the noise of folly, most musical, most melancholy!
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