Jennifer Lopez is the cover girl for the September issue of Glamour magazine. Now, I still pretty much love Jennifer. I think she’s awesome, and awesomely horrible, all at once. She’s so much fun to write about, she’s so much fun to see on the red carpet, she’s still an insufferable diva, even after all of these years. She and Marc have been together for SIX years already. Can you believe it? And she’s still fighting the good fight for relevancy, and a September cover isn’t a bad way to fight, even if it is just Glamour. The full Glamour interview with Jennifer is here, and here are some of the highlights:

JENNIFER LOPEZ on fantasy versus reality: I like to maintain a certain sense of fantasy in my life. I am kind of like that at home. Do I have the full hair and makeup? No. But I might have the nice dress on.

JENNIFER LOPEZ on Chinese takeout: Marc actually loves Chinese a little too much. He’ll say, “I’m really in the mood for Chinese.” I’m like, “Again?”

JENNIFER LOPEZ on cooking: Marc doesn’t cook, but he will prepare an occasional turkey. I like to cook Puerto Rican food. That’s what I grew up on: rice, beans, meat, some Italian-American food. I know my way around the kitchen. We enjoy having that normalcy, because we don’t have that much of it. We really are a traveling gypsy family.

JENNIFER LOPEZ on Marc: He’s concentrated on not being out there as much. I think that’s what a partnership is—you take the positives from both people and incorporate them. He helped me learn that there was a way to have more privacy and more stability in my life.

JENNIFER LOPEZ on her “maternity leave”: It’s funny—I don’t feel like I’ve been anywhere, except kind of on maternity leave. It’s been great, and I definitely feel renewed vigor for my career. I didn’t [plan on taking two years off]. In my mind I first felt like, Oh, I’ll be back to work right after the babies are born. But then you don’t want to. Even now, it’s very difficult for me to leave them in the morning. It just tortures me. I’m like, It’s been hours; are they wondering where I am? Do they know that I love them so much and I’m thinking only about them?

JENNIFER LOPEZ on Marc as a father: He’s a passionate person, and he’s the same way with his kids, and I love it. When it comes to all his kids [including a daughter and sons from previous relationships], he’s mush, whatever they want.

JENNIFER LOPEZ on being a strict parent: I’m the one who keeps everybody on schedule, like, Got to go to bed at this time, got to eat something…. I was talking about this with somebody—they asked, “Do you still love working?” I said, “I just do it quicker.” There’s no “Go to the studio, have dinner, sit there.” I don’t have all the time in the world anymore.

JENNIFER LOPEZ on getting back into shape post-pregnancy: I did the triathlon six months after the babies were born, and part of that was about giving myself a goal. Maybe it was an emotional thing: Like, that tiger’s still in there. But it takes a year [after pregnancy]. You’re not going to get slim in six weeks. For me, it’s been back and forth. Now, two years later, I feel really back to normal. I would [do it again] if I didn’t have to swim in the ocean. That really scared me! If it were in a pool, I’d do it again in a minute. It’s an amazing thing to push yourself and to accomplish a goal like that.

GLAMOUR: Does that apply to everything in your life?
JENNIFER LOPEZ: I think so. I feel if in your mind you can do it, you can do it. You cannot doubt yourself. Doubt is a killer. You just have to know who you are and what you stand for.

GLAMOUR: But how do you dismiss doubt? Is it a friend that you turn to? Is it yourself? Is it working even harder?
JENNIFER LOPEZ: I didn’t experience doubt until later in my life. When I was young, I was just about hard work. But as I got older, I did experience anxiety, doubt, judgment, and it’s so easy to lose yourself for a second. I always joke about letting the haters motivate you. Everybody has that in their life, people who doubt them or make them feel less than they are. It just takes faith and belief in yourself, and you’ve got to dig deep into that. That has to come from you—nobody’s going to give you that. You can have a great mentor, a great partner, a great love in your life who gives you confidence and makes you feel great about yourself. And that’s all wonderful, but at the end of the day, if you don’t believe it, all of that means nothing.

GLAMOUR: This has been such an inspiring time politically for Latinas, with the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Have you met her?
JENNIFER LOPEZ: We have. We actually had a dinner for her here at the house.
GLAMOUR: Wow. When she got confirmed?
JENNIFER LOPEZ: Yes. It was so inspirational what she accomplished. My mom and sister were in Atlantic City with us on the [day she was confirmed]. Marc was still in bed, and he goes, “It’s happening. She’s on the TV. She’s getting sworn in.” And she was standing there with her mom. I will never forget this moment: We all stopped and looked, and we all started crying. You just felt it. It was such a huge accomplishment to be the first Latina, to be from the Bronx, to be everything that she is. So we thought we had to do something nice and invited her over. And I told her, “Just know that you make me want to be better. You make people realize that with hard work, living a good life, you can do anything. You will be rewarded for that.”

GLAMOUR: As a mom, you’re a role model for your kids. What do you want to tell Max about love and how to treat women?
JENNIFER LOPEZ: I think about it a lot. I want to teach him respect and appreciation for women by being a great woman.

GLAMOUR: What will you tell Emme about love?
JENNIFER LOPEZ: I was talking about it with one of my girlfriends—the day our daughters come to us at 19 years old saying, “I want to get married.” And we know for damn sure that that’s not a good idea. Sometimes [Emme] is going to make mistakes, and she’s going to have to live through that, just like I did. I know my mother suffered with me through many things. I’m just going to be suffering on the sidelines.

GLAMOUR: Do you wish that some parts of your past weren’t so public?
JENNIFER LOPEZ: I don’t regret what I’ve been through. I’ve had ups and downs, super highs and some really low lows. I’ve been so blessed that I could never say, “I wish this didn’t happen.” It’s part of who I am. There’s nothing in my life that’s so ugh. Yes, there are some things that I’m like, Eww, but not where I’m worried about [Max and Emme] finding out. I’ll tell them myself. No secrets from them.

GLAMOUR: Your new album is titled Love? Why the question mark?
JENNIFER LOPEZ: For me, love is the never-ending question. It is confusing. It is the answer, but it is also inundated with contradictions and complications. It’s about years of experience in different relationships, and kind of the culmination of that, and how even to this day, I’m still learning.

[From Glamour]

Yeah, it wasn’t her best interview, it tended towards saccharine. But I liked what Jennifer said about what she’ll be thinking when Emme wants to get married at 19, and I liked all the stuff about Marc. I really do hope that Jennifer and Marc make it – I actually think they still really adore each other and respect each other. Gah! I know I’m usually a cynic, but whatever. MORE J.LO.

Photos courtesy of Glamour online. Cover courtesy of CocoPerez.