Phrases

Britney Spears can talk. And she will tonight in a much-hyped interview with Diane Sawyer.

She has a TV music special Monday night for In The Zone, and her new album is out Tuesday.

In the meantime, she's had plenty to say. Herewith, Britney Spears: A life in quotes.

'We were, like, 12 or 13 and it was, like, 'Hi, do you like me?' It was, like, puppy love."

-- On what it was like with Justin Timberlake when they were on The Mickey Mouse Club together.

"I want to be an artist that everyone can relate to, that's young and happy and fun."

-- December, 1998. In a record label release for the upcoming ... Baby One More Time, 16-year-old Britney gives her mission statement.

"I get to go to a lot of overseas places, like Canada."

-- In January, 1999, shortly after the release of ...Baby One More Time, the geographically challenged Britney made her first Toronto appearance, an autograph signing at the Markville Shopping Centre. She says she loves her mall tour. "You're in a mall. You get to shop!"

"It just means, 'Hit me with a sign.'"

-- Britney tells The Sun's Jane Stevenson ... Baby One More Time is not about violence. She goes on to say about her wardrobe: "That's how kids are today. Where I'm from, I don't think anything of it if someone has a sports bra on and is dancing. It'd be different if my skirt was up to my ass."

"Ben Affleck. He's so cute. And he doesn't have a girlfriend now, does he?"

-- March, 1999. The increasingly famous Britney spills the beans on which movie star she'd most like to get hooked up with. She eventually got his phone number, but says she never used it.

"I know how to drink. Me and my mom will have a glass of wine together and that's fine. But I stop before (I'm inebriated). I just sit there and go all quiet because I hate to lose control."

-- April, 1999, in a Rolling Stone interview that featured Britney on the cover in hot pants and a push-up bra.

"I've been working a really long time for this. I've hoped and dreamed that all of this would come to reality."

-- May, 1999. Britney's No. 1 on both the Billboard album and singles charts, and she's signed to guest on three episodes of Dawson's Creek.

"My mom would just die if I did that!"

-- June, 1999. Britney denies having breast implants.

"He's like a brother to me. Every time we read stories about us, we totally laugh!"

-- June, 1999. Britney denies any romantic attachment to Justin Timberlake.

"I've been finding that there are a lot of older guys in the audience lately. I don't want to be part of someone's Lolita thing. It freaks me out."

-- April, 2000, on the eve of the release of Oops... I Did It Again.

"I adore him. He is the cutest thing in the world, and we talk. But it's nothing serious."

-- April, 2000. Britney still sort of denying the Justin thing.

"I mean, God, we were in the Mickey Mouse Club together! We still hang out when we see each other at a club."

-- May, 2000. Britney denies a rivalry with Christina Aguilera, who beat her out for a New Artist Grammy.

"If I did anything else, it would be a mistake."

-- May, 2000. Britney tells a German magazine she plans to remain a virgin until her wedding night.

"Somebody just asked me before I came in here, 'Is it true that this guy offered you some $17 million to have sex with him?' and I was like, 'What are you talking about?' "

-- June, 2000. Britney, in Toronto, denies an American billionaire offered $17 million to...

"When you're comfortable with someone you love, the silence is the best. And that's how me and J are. When we're in a room together, we don't have to say anything."

-- November, 2000. Okay, maybe she is seeing Justin.

"We thought the whole thing was going to be about the tiger. I mean, I'm in a cage with a tiger! But no one says anything about that. Me and the snake, that was the big thing."

-- September, 2001. A bemused Britney accesses the response to her animal-act performance of I'm A Slave 4 U on the MTV Video Music Awards.

"All my dancers are gay and I love them. I talk to them more than my girlfriends."

-- November, 2001. Britney kisses up to the gay press at a Toronto press conference promoting her third album, Britney. She declined comment on that week's big news, the war in Afghanistan.

"I used to take things so seriously in such a bad way. Now I've realized that I can have a lot more fun. And I think my boyfriend's helped me to break that habit. He's just a complete goofball. My priorities have changed. I love what I do, but it's not my life. My family, my God and my boyfriend, that's my life."

-- December, 2001. Britney reassesses her priorities on the eve of her 20th birthday.

"You know, things happen for a reason. I pray that it doesn't (bomb), but this is just something I had to do for me."

-- February, 2002. Britney crosses her fingers on the release of her first movie starring role, in Crossroads.

"I'm taking a break, so people are writing that I'm having a meltdown."

-- September, 2002. Britney takes a break on the heels of mediocre box office for Crossroads, disappointing sales for the album Britney, her breakup with Justin and her parents' divorce.

"He's a good kisser."

-- February, 2003. Britney on flame du jour Colin Farrell.

"He's not my type."

-- March, 2003. Britney denies a liaison with Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst, who'd gone public with X-rated details of their alleged affair.

"I've only slept with one person my whole life. It was two years into my relationship with Justin, and I thought he was the one. But I was wrong! I didn't think he was gonna go on Barbara Walters and sell me out."

-- July, 2003. Britney admits she did it.

"I flew to London from New York and I couldn't believe it was all over the papers there. It's crazy and it's bizarre, and also kind of amazing."

-- September, 2003. Britney comments on public reaction to the kiss she shared with Madonna on the MTV Video Music Awards.

"I don't know why we ever did that to be honest with you. It was just something a business manager wanted to do. It's a restaurant, I really don't give a shit. Can we talk about my music instead of my restaurant?"

-- October, 2003. Britney gets peeved after her New York restaurant Nyla closes for health violations.