"He was so energetic that at five years old, he was like a leader. We saw that. So we said, 'Hey, Michael, you be the lead guy.' The audience ate it up. He was into those James Brown things at the time, you know. The speed was the thing. He would see somebody do something, and he could do it right away."

Jackie Jackson, Michael's brother in "Rolling Stone" magazine (February 17th, 1983)

"I never thought about it. I knew I wanted to do something wonderful all my life and to help people and I never clearly really thought about it when I was really little. I just sang and danced and didn't understand why people were applaudin and clapping and screaming. You really don't. You don't know why.  It takes longer [to understand] when you get older. You get a more rounded personality and your brain starts to grow. You start reasoning and understanding more things, researching. I'm like this (normal, reasonable) all the time. I'm just being myself."

Michael Jackson talking to Geraldo Rivera.

"When you have a special ability as a child, you don't realize it, because you think everyone else has the same gift that you have. I didn't realize why they were clapping or crying or starting to scream. Later in life people would say, 'do you realize you have a special talent?' But you know that talent is not from our doing...it's from above. So I was always humbled by people who would come with accolades or adulations."

Michael Jackson.

"Most people have the luxury of careers that start when they're old enough to know exactly what they're doing and why, but, of course, that wasn't true of me. They remember everything that happened to them, but I was only five years old. When you're a show business child, you really don't have the maturity to understand a great deal of what is going on around you. People make a lot of decisions concerning your life when you're out of the room. So here's what I remember, I remember singing at the top of my voice and dancing with real joy and working too hard for a child....I wasn't forced into this business by stage parents the way Judy Garland was. I did it because I enjoyed it and because it was as natural to me as drawing a breath and exhaling it. I did it because I was compelled to do it, not by parents or family, but by my own inner life in the world of music."

Michael Jackson in his book Moonwalk.

"Michael was meticulous about everything, almost to a fault. Very disciplined. I think it's marvelous to be like that at that age - to have that kind of knowledge and feeling toward your work."

Walter Scharf, composer of the music to "Ben.