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Creativity Quote by Aaliyah

"There are certain things I want to keep to me. I don't discuss my private life"

About this Quote

Aaliyah’s line lands like a velvet rope: polite, firm, non-negotiable. In a pop ecosystem that treats intimacy as currency, “There are certain things I want to keep to me” is less a coy dodge than a boundary stated in plain language. The power is in its understatement. She doesn’t moralize about privacy or scold the audience; she simply redraws the map. “Certain things” signals selectivity, not secrecy for secrecy’s sake. She’s not refusing connection, she’s controlling access.

The second sentence does the real work. “I don’t discuss my private life” isn’t a one-time refusal; it’s a policy. The phrasing is steady, almost procedural, which matters for a young woman in late-’90s/early-2000s celebrity culture when interviews often nudged female artists toward confession: who they dated, what they wore, how their bodies changed, what men did to them. Aaliyah insists on being read through her work and presence, not through a narrative of availability.

There’s also a protective context humming underneath. For an artist whose adolescence was shadowed by invasive public scrutiny and rumor, privacy isn’t branding; it’s self-defense. The quote quietly rejects the idea that fans are owed backstage access to a person’s life in exchange for music. She offers the art, keeps the rest, and in doing so models a kind of dignity that feels even more radical in today’s oversharing economy.

Quote Details

TopicPrivacy & Cybersecurity
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Aaliyah. (2026, January 17). There are certain things I want to keep to me. I don't discuss my private life. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-are-certain-things-i-want-to-keep-to-me-i-40130/

Chicago Style
Aaliyah. "There are certain things I want to keep to me. I don't discuss my private life." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-are-certain-things-i-want-to-keep-to-me-i-40130/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"There are certain things I want to keep to me. I don't discuss my private life." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-are-certain-things-i-want-to-keep-to-me-i-40130/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

Aaliyah

Aaliyah (January 16, 1979 - August 25, 2001) was a Musician from USA.

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