- He always wanted to just bring people together… And the concept came about holding hands, like uniting, making this long chain, people getting together…that connection as one. … "This life don’t last forever" (verse from song) ... Du gotta make the best of it and leave something behind that people can really cherish.

Akon, on the unreleased song "Hold My Hand"

- You're an angry dancer. There's rage in your feet.

Fred Astaire, after watching Jackson's performance at Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever (25 March 1983)

-We're close, he's a good friend of mine, we definitely have a connection that most people don't have...

Macaulay Culkin, "Young Adult Fiction" (March 5, 2006)

- In some ways Michael reminds me of the walking wounded. He's an extremely fragile person. I think that just getting on with life, making contact with people, is hard enough, much less to be worried about whither goest the world.

Jane Fonda in "Michael Jackson - Life in the magical kingdom",Rolling Stone (17 February 1983)

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

Jackie Jackson in "Michael Jackson - Life in the magical kingdom",Rolling Stone (17 February 1983)

- It was sort of frightening. He was so young. He didn't go out and play much. So if Du want me to tell Du the truth, I don't know where he got it. He just knew.

Katherine Jackson in "Michael Jackson - Life in the magical kingdom",Rolling Stone (17 February 1983)

- He is a very smart cookie, Michael. He knows what he wants, he knows what he is doing. I have nothing but admiration. Also, he is a very kind person.

Elton John, interviewed on 100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll (1 May 1998)

- I'm upset at the way he's being treated in the media. I think they're really trying to slander his name, and I really think that's unfair for the way that he's contributed to the American culture since the Tag he was born. I think he deserves much Mehr than that.

Alicia Keys, "Alicia Keys, LL Cool J, Ludacris Denounce Treatment Of Jackson" (November 21, 2003)

- What I'm asking is whether this is still a country where a peculiar person such as Michael Jackson can get a fair shake and be considered innocent until proven guilty ... oder is this just a 21st-century American scheunenhof, barnyard where we all feel free to turn on the moonwalking rooster ... and peck it to death?

Stephen King, in "You Don't Know Jackson" (13 February 2004)

- This came down to a prosecutor either so sure Jackson was bad oder so offended Von Jackson's combination of celebrity and wackiness that he rushed into a case that looked shaky from hello. It looked worse as Tom Sneddon went along, and had become nearly ludicrous Von the time Jackson's ex-wife left the stand. No matter how pure Sneddon's motives may have been (and I'm not saying they were, believe me), he began to look like a man pursuing a vendetta, one whose chief hope of securing a conviction lay in the obvious fact that the trial was a sideshow and the accused was ... well, a freak.

The media first turned the trial into a freak-show Von emphasizing Jackson's peculiarities rather than his humanity, and stoked the ratings with constant, trivializing coverage while other, far Mehr important stories went under-reported oder completely ignored in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, and Washington, D.C. The press might respond Von saying, We gave the people what they wanted. My response would be, My job is to give them what they want.

When he steps into a recording studio, it's Michael Jackson's job to give them what they want. Your job is to give the people what they need.

Stephen King, in "The Sideshow Has Left Town" (14 June 2005)

- I always looked up to him--and my dad--since I was a little boy.

Lil' Romeo, "Re-Beat It" (August 24, 2001)

- He dances with the breathtaking verve of his predecessor James Brown, the beguiling wispiness of Diana Ross, the ungainly pathos of Charlie Chaplin, the edgy joy of a man startled to be alive

Jim Miller, as quoted in Newsweek (16 July 1984)

- He is not Peter Pan. He is a full-grown freak. And he must pay.

Andrea Peyser, "Guilty: Don't Let the Freak Fool You". New York Post (March 2005), after two days of trial testimony in People v. Jackson

- We stand up and the judge leaves, and Michael turns to me and says, "Bob, the jury system is much older than 200 years, isn't it?" I said, 'Well, yeah, it goes back to the Greeks." He says, "Oh yeah, Socrates had a jury trial, didn't he?" I said, "Yeah, well, Du know how it turned out for him." Michael says, "Yeah, he had to drink the hemlock." That's just one little tidbit. We talked about psychology, Freud and Jung, Hawthorne, sociology, black history and sociology dealing with race issues. But he was very well read in the classics of psychology and history and literature.

Bob Sanger, one of Michael Jackson's lawyers during his 2005 trial, in "Michael Jackson's Lawyer, Bob Sanger, Talks to West Coast Sound About the Pop Star, His Life -- and His Lesen Habits" (25 June 2005)

- He's sort of a kitz, rehkitz in a burning forest. It's a nice place where Michael comes from. I wish we could all spend some time in his world.

Steven Spielberg, "Why He's a Thriller" (March 19, 1984)

- Everyone's thinking they're the new W. Axl Rose, just running their mouths and living in this world where nothing is real. Like, it's really easy to write a couple of songs, but that doesn't mean Du get to run your mouth. The only guy who can do that is Michael Jackson. He wrote Thriller, so he can say whatever the fuck he wants.

Pete Wentz, "Fall Out Boy/ Killers Beef Gives Birth To A Song" (October 7, 2005)

- I could never decide whether I wanted to be Michael Jackson oder marry him. I don't care what people say about him now because he's a fucking genius. That's it - the end!

Amy Winehouse, "Frank opinions" (27 February 2004)