Carly Simon
A really strong woman accepts the war she went through and is ennobled by her scars.Collection: War
We need role models who are going to break the mold.
One of the things that has always motivated me to write is the desire to get it out and look at it in an objective way, so that it doesn't cause me any serious pain by staying inside.
We are in this period now where we all are trying to be in shape physically and deny ourselves any pleasure.
I've gone through the village of my songwriting and my artistry, and I've gone through lots of different phases, including one where it has been very quiet and abandoned me for a few years.
As a singer I tried on all these hats, these voices, these clothes, and eventually out came me.
I took it to heart that in order to be a good person, you never said anything mean about anybody.
Being in this business for as long as I've been in it, it's sort of like living in a town or a city before the war and then after the war and then during the reconstruction and then during the time that it sprawls out to the malls.
My scar is beautiful. It looks like an arrow.
You're lucky you had that when you were 20. I sure didn't. I was overweight, and I had acne.
No, because I've never really changed my style that much.
You know when you take the paint off an old canvas and you discover that something's been painted underneath it? That's what I feel like - that part of the old is coming through the new.
There was a French singer, Francoise Hardy - I used to look at her pictures and try to dress like her.
So I suppose this slightly mature fashion sense happened because of what I had.
My look was even more solidified when I started singing in Greenwich Village with my sister Lucy. We wore matching dresses as the Simon Sisters.
Well, I tried to get a record deal in 1966 or '67, and everyone thought I was too eclectic.
Sometimes, but the year I lived in France I started to write songs.
Sometimes my boyfriend would write the lyrics and I would write the melody, and other times I would start from scratch. Or sometimes I would take a local poem and put that to music.
Then I went through a big Peggy Lee stage, then I became Annie Ross, then Judy Collins.
My father was a classical pianist, and my mother was a singer of just about everything.
We went to see all the shows. American musical theater and jazz were very big.
But when we listened to the radio, it was Bill Haley and the Comets or the Everly Brothers.
I always sang standards because the songs I wrote for myself weren't as easy to sing.
I'm still more comfortable with standards than with my own songs.
Well, I make every song I sing personal. I've never chosen a song that wasn't.
It didn't matter as much because I'm a singer, not an actress, but my face is more acceptable in a way now than when I first came on the scene, because I'm part black.
No, because I was always nervous about being onstage.
I had this terrible stammer, so I couldn't really speak properly until I was 16 or 17.
I remember being onstage once when I didn't have fear: I got so scared I didn't have fear that it brought on an anxiety attack.
Do you know how many concerts I've done in my whole life, in more than 35 years of performing? Sixty-four.
I had a mastectomy in 1998, and then chemo.
You know, people want to honor me, and on the one hand I just don't want to be a poster child; but on the other, I want to do something classy and great - something where the residuals will go to the cause.
I just want to show off my scar proudly and not be afraid of it.
I try to get to those peculiar and particular things that you never think of to say.
I always think it's interesting to dig a little bit deeper every time you go to someplace that seems like a revelation or a strong connection to an emotional truth.
I think that I've got some pretty bad reviews on albums or songs that later proved themselves.
I think that most people really know if it's a really great album.
The models for me were more the folk-rock singers of the '60s and '70s.
You usually can't tell what's inspiring until you look back on it.
Everyone has problems, and learning to share them is essential. Hiding pain requires an enormous amount of energy; sharing it is liberating.Collection: Friendship
I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee.Collection: Dream
Life is a dream even in its most painful moments, it's a dream that we can dance to.Collection: Life
The sound of birds stops the noise in my mind.Collection: Bird
Don't mind if I fall apart. There's more room in a broken heart.Collection: Fall
You don't have to prove to me you're beautiful to strangers, I've got loving eyes of my own.Collection: Beautiful
I've learned that nobody's perfect, and I don't expect myself to be perfect anymore.Collection: Perfect
All men are created equal and all women are created equal as well, but [equality] seems much clearer when it comes to race issues. In the realms of man/woman, man/man, woman/woman love, it seems all up for grabs now. We are exploring so much, but I think we gotta go for the fight for all equality first.Collection: Fighting
You say we'll soar like two birds through the clouds, but soon you'll cage me on your shelf. I'll never learn to be just me, first by myself.Collection: Relationship
Anticipation is making me late, it's keeping me waiting.Collection: Waiting
Sometimes my boyfriend would write the lyrics and I would write the melody, and other times I would start from scratch. Or sometimes I would take a local poem and put that to music...I always sang standards because the songs I wrote for myself weren't as easy to sing.Collection: Song