There is a funny saying "Dogs have masters, cats have staff" which means you listen to your cats, not your cats listen to you. :)
But it's not so true, however, honestly, cat is more difficult to deal with. They are unbelievable cute, so you are hardly can say No to them. Even you are mad, they are still not listening to you most of time. They are very cunning, they know you meant No, but they love testing your limitation.
I agree that you should start with kittens. They may know you better and so do you, but kittens are like human baby, they need a lot of care. And they couldn't stop crying sometimes (sounds like a real baby).
Some cats don't really want to deal with you, they don't want to play with you. I had time with one, she was really a *cool* cat. Some are keeping bugging you.
I suggest you should find someone already has cats and stay with them for a while. Trying to take care of them, feeding them, caring them, cleaning up litter box, so you can know if you really can deal with them or not. Or, you can just go to animal shelter to play with them for a while.
If you are okay, then I hope you can go to animal shelter to adopt one. They got kittens, too, not just adults. If it's a male kitten, neuter him when he is older enough, so he wouldn't go out and knock up others as how he was conceived. Well, you probably want to spay female, too. Without spaying or neutering, you would listen to their baby crying and sometimes it's kind of scary.
Cat is person, they have personality. I love being my cat's servant.
PS. I have written these in 2006 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/livibetter/1344479723/), "Cat is Evil":
Cat is Evil
They wake you up at 3 am becuase of their hungry
You can’t wake them up at 3 pm because of their tiredness from causing the air
Cat is more Evil
They wake you up at 3 am becuase of their hungry, but the bowl is full of food
You still can’t wake them up at 3o1 pm, you can only get a “leave-me-alone” from their eyes for sure
Cat is Evil
They want you to play with them whenever they want
When you want to play with them, you will get “who-is-that-idiot” from their eyes for sure
Cat is more Evil
They come, they conquer, they destroy
You fall back, you surrender, you are destroied
Cat is Evil
They mess up, they pretend “I am so so sorry”, they leave with smile
You anger, you forgive, you clean up what they leave for you
Yea, Cat is Evil
But
We still love them