Mariah Carey

Mariah: I know I can be diva-ish sometimes, but I have to be in control. The nature of my life, the nature of what I do, is divadom, it really is.

Mariah: (revealing she was inspired to write Hero while using the bathroom) Sometimes I wake up and in the middle of the night and have an idea and have to get up and record it straight away before I forget it. Or with Hero, I was in the studio and someone was telling me about this film Hero with Dustin Hoffman in it. I took a walk to the loo and when I came back I had this idea for a song, and that was what then became Hero.

Mariah: (on her role in Push) I'm not going to be a pretty picture but actually it wasn't about that. The role is a supporting part, a little scene, but it's a very important scene.

Mariah: You really just want to know that somebody loves you for you. Sometimes you feel like an ATM machine with a wig on it.

Mariah: (denying she said she'd rather "be on stage with a pig" than duet with J-Lo) This is just some Internet gossip and it's pathetic that people actually entertain the thought that this could be real. This is another sad example of two strong women being pitted against each other.

Mariah: I'd rather be onstage with a pig - a duet with Jennifer Lopez and me just ain't going to happen.

Mariah: (on protecting her voice) Literally, I'll have twenty humidifiers around the bed. Basically, it's like sleeping in a steam room. The bed is all terry-cloth, the ceiling is pitched so the water can't fall on my head, and it drips down to my side, and the TV is behind glass. I think that a lot of women are just trying to live up to the stereotypes and to the standard that's set on TV and in magazines, which is airbrushed women who weigh 3 pounds. And it's not fair. It's not easy. But everybody gets really protective of me. They're, like, 'Be less sexy.' If I look too sexy it's not intentional - if you film my body a certain way, it's gonna look like a certain way.

Mariah: Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff.

Mariah: One day I promised God that if he would give me my voice back I would never smoke again. I got three octaves back after quitting.

Mariah: There is a light at the end of the tunnel... hopefully its not a freight train!