Judy Collins

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I think people who are creative are the luckiest people on earth. I know that there are no shortcuts, but you must keep your faith in something Greater than You, and keep doing what you love. Do what you love, and you will find the way to get it out to the world.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Faith
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I feel so very grateful to have the voice God gave me. It takes a lot of rest and training to sing, and I was lucky that I found a great teacher when I first moved to New York.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Teacher
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I don't think you get to good writing unless you expose yourself and your feelings. Deep songs don't come from the surface; they come from the deep down. The poetry and the songs that you are suppose to write, I believe are in your heart.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Poetry
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I have inspiration and feelings of being alive most every day I live.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Life
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I had some wonderful dreaming meetings. I can't tell you specifically what they've been in the recent months. In the past they've been verbal kinds of messages that he needed to give me. Now they're more dreams of his presence.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Dreams
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I don't dream songs. I'm more apt to write dreams down and then to be able to interpret them into a song. I also tend to get up and write prose in the morning from which will come songs.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Dreams
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My book 'Trust Your Heart', which is the story of my life, will be followed by 'Singing Lessons', a memoir of love, loss, hope, and healing, which talks about the death of my son and the hope that has been the aftermath of the healing from that tragedy.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Trust
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It is true that I have had heartache and tragedy in my life. These are things none of us avoids. Suffering is the price of being alive.
- Judy Collins
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I've gone through many, many things. I tell you something, that if it doesn't kill you, you get stronger.
- Judy Collins
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When inspiration does not come, I go for a walk, go to the movie, talk to a friend, let go... The muse is bound to return again, especially if I turn my back!
- Judy Collins
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I think suicide is sort of like cancer was 50 years ago. People don't want to talk about it, they don't want to know about it. People are frightened of it, and they don't understand, when actually these issues are medically treatable.
- Judy Collins
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Do what you love, and you will find the way to get it out to the world.
- Judy Collins
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I am thrilled to have been able to put together this new album. I listened to everything I had recorded in the 24 years with Elektra, and then just took all the ones I am mad about.
- Judy Collins
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I don't know where my songs come from... If I knew, I'd know too much, more than we are allowed on this plane.
- Judy Collins
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The powerful men in my life have always believed in me: my husband, my son.
- Judy Collins
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I always sang when I was little and my father, who was a great influence on me, also had a wonderful voice. He and my mother really encouraged me to sing and play the piano. They were always very supportive.
- Judy Collins
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For many centuries, suicides were treated like criminals by the society. That is part of the terrible legacy that has come down into society's method of handling suicide recovery. Now we have to fight off the demons that have been hanging around suicide for centuries.
- Judy Collins
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Most of what we take as being important is not material, whether it's music or feelings or love. They're things we can't really see or touch. They're not material, but they're vitally important to us.
- Judy Collins
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I am just glad that I can take the music to the people who want to hear it. I love my audiences. I am deeply indebted to them for giving me the chance to sing my concerts, make records, and do what I love. Whatever people call it, it is great to have a voice!
- Judy Collins
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I sang in the coffee houses of the country in the early '60s with no idea of success in terms of records or television. I just thought I was a storyteller. I didn't even think of myself as a singer.
- Judy Collins
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I may like the Blizzard best, of all the songs I have written.
- Judy Collins
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I write journals and would recommend journal writing to anyone who wishes to pursue a writing career. You learn a lot. You also remember a lot... and memory is important.
- Judy Collins
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Writing anything is terribly hard but, alas for me, because I am addicted, a heck of a lot of fun. I often am sorry I ever started writing prose, because it is so hard. But I can't stop.
- Judy Collins
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I was raised to speak out about politics and the world around me. I would do it whether I was in the public or not. It is the way I was taught. The American way.
- Judy Collins
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Music is always occurring. It is just a matter of marketing, attention, and many other factors, that determines whether people will hear these songs or not.
- Judy Collins
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I think that new communications are wonderful and I am delighted to be a part of the Internet generation.
- Judy Collins
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If I had not been already been meditating, I would certainly have had to start. I've treated my own depression for many years with exercise and meditation, and I've found that to be a tremendous help.
- Judy Collins
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Recovering from the suicide of a loved one, you need all the help you can get, so I very much recommend a meditation program. The whole picture of how to recover from this has to do with body, mind, and spirit. That's applicable to any kind of depression.
- Judy Collins
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If I give myself a chore, for instance, when I was writing the songs for Shameless, I said to myself, Now, every day for 90 days you have to write a song; good, bad or indifferent. So that was really helpful.
- Judy Collins
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I have friends who've tried suicide many times and haven't succeeded. I myself made an attempt, so I had a connection with that sort of group of people who have tried suicide at one time in their lives.
- Judy Collins
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I have tried, in all the ways I can, to make timeless music.
- Judy Collins
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Experience is how life catches up with us and teaches us to love and forgive each other.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Love
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I look in the mirror through the eyes of the child that was me.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Patience
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Irish Alzheimer's: you forget everything except the grudges
- Judy Collins
Collection: Alzheimer's
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Survival, I know, is to begin again.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Survival
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Writing is a voice that calls us from dreams, that peeks out of the corner of our eyes when we think no one is looking, the longing that breaks our hearts even when we think we should be happiest, and to which we cannot give a name.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Dream
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I was raised to speak out about politics and the world around me. I would do it whether I was in the public or not. It is the way I was taught. The American way
- Judy Collins
Collection: Speaks Out
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I have inspiration and feelings of being alive most every day I live
- Judy Collins
Collection: Inspiration
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I am glad so many women singers are being heard in music today. It is healthy for music . . . healthy because it means a lot of men are listening!
- Judy Collins
Collection: Mean
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The opening line from a journal can be the beginning of a song.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Song
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... even the devil works for God.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Devil
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Suffering is the price of being alive, and it is music and singing and art that has helped me live through some of the most difficult things that have happened to me.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Art
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When you have a belief, then you make your views known.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Views
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Music can speak louder than words, and I will use my music to speak out on behalf of children everywhere.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Children
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When we sing, our hearts can lift and fly, over the troubled waters and over the years.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Heart
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The poetry and the songs that you are suppose to write, I believe are in your heart. You just have to open up your heart and not be afraid to get them out.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Song
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Capitalism can be helpful, but it can also be destructive when it's used by huge enterprises worldwide for the sale of weapons.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Weapons
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Recovering from the suicide of a loved one, you need all the help you can get.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Suicide
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Humanity is filled with beautiful and positive and powerful people who care. I'm so glad we have people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in the world.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Beautiful
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The rise of the Internet has caused the demise of the record labels, and has destroyed the music business of old, but it's also created new opportunities for young artists.
- Judy Collins
Collection: Artist