Top 66 Quotes & Sayings by Carly Simon

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Carly Simon.

Last updated on December 3, 2024.

Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records; her 13 Top 40 U.S. hits include "Anticipation", "The Right Thing to Do", "Haven't Got Time for the Pain", "You Belong to Me", "Coming Around Again", and her four Gold-certified singles "You're So Vain", "Mockingbird", "Nobody Does It Better" from the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, and "Jesse". She has authored five children's books as well as two memoirs.

American - Musician | Born: June 25, 1945

Source: Wikipedia

I took it to heart that in order to be a good person, you never said anything mean about anybody.

Carly Simon

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.

Carly Simon

The models for me were more the folk-rock singers of the '60s and '70s.

Carly Simon

You usually can't tell what's inspiring until you look back on it.

Carly Simon

Then I went through a big Peggy Lee stage, then I became Annie Ross, then Judy Collins.

Carly Simon

I try to get to those peculiar and particular things that you never think of to say.

Carly Simon

I think that I've got some pretty bad reviews on albums or songs that later proved themselves.

Carly Simon

I had this terrible stammer, so I couldn't really speak properly until I was 16 or 17.

Carly Simon

My father was a classical pianist, and my mother was a singer of just about everything.

Carly Simon

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.

Carly Simon

There was a French singer, Francoise Hardy - I used to look at her pictures and try to dress like her.

Carly Simon

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.

Carly Simon

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.

Carly Simon

My scar is beautiful. It looks like an arrow.

Carly Simon

We are in this period now where we all are trying to be in shape physically and deny ourselves any pleasure.

Carly Simon

As a singer I tried on all these hats, these voices, these clothes, and eventually out came me.

Carly Simon

No, because I've never really changed my style that much.

Carly Simon

So I suppose this slightly mature fashion sense happened because of what I had.

Carly Simon

Do you know how many concerts I've done in my whole life, in more than 35 years of performing? Sixty-four.

Carly Simon

Well, I make every song I sing personal. I've never chosen a song that wasn't.

Carly Simon

No, because I was always nervous about being onstage.

Carly Simon

I had a mastectomy in 1998, and then chemo.

Carly Simon

You're lucky you had that when you were 20. I sure didn't. I was overweight, and I had acne.

Carly Simon

Well, I tried to get a record deal in 1966 or '67, and everyone thought I was too eclectic.

Carly Simon

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.

Carly Simon

I just want to show off my scar proudly and not be afraid of it.

Carly Simon

I think that most people really know if it's a really great album.

Carly Simon

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.

Carly Simon

I'm still more comfortable with standards than with my own songs.

Carly Simon

Sometimes, but the year I lived in France I started to write songs.

Carly Simon

We went to see all the shows. American musical theater and jazz were very big.

Carly Simon

I always sang standards because the songs I wrote for myself weren't as easy to sing.

Carly Simon

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.

Carly Simon

But when we listened to the radio, it was Bill Haley and the Comets or the Everly Brothers.

Carly Simon

A really strong woman accepts the war she went through and is ennobled by her scars.

Carly Simon

We need role models who are going to break the mold.

Carly Simon

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.

Carly Simon

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.

Carly Simon

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.

Carly Simon

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.

Carly Simon

Anticipation is making me late, it's keeping me waiting.

Carly Simon

Everyone has problems, and learning to share them is essential. Hiding pain requires an enormous amount of energy; sharing it is liberating.

Carly Simon

Life is a dream even in its most painful moments, it's a dream that we can dance to.

Carly Simon

I took it to heart that in order to be a good person; you never said anything mean about anybody.

Carly Simon

You're so vain. I bet you think this song is about you.

Carly Simon

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.

Carly Simon

Don't mind if I fall apart. There's more room in a broken heart.

Carly Simon

I've always thought of myself as being a warrior. When you actually have a battle, it's better than when you don't know who to fight.

Carly Simon

We change our opinions of ourselves so often. What the outside world thinks is only a small part of our image.

Carly Simon

I'm a little old-fashioned - I like it when the man opens the door and I like it when a man pays for me. I particularly like it when they pay for dinner or whatever, because I've pretty much done the opposite, but for the exception of James [Taylor], where we split everything down the middle. I've been the larger money earner in practically all of my relationships. There's equality and there are positive differences, which are complimentary.

Carly Simon

I used the physical scar of my breast cancer operation, the scar that I have across my chest as a metaphor for all kinds of scars.

Carly Simon

I haven't got time for the pain.

Carly Simon

Undoubtedly, Patsy Cline was a trailblazer and in that respect, all women who are singular in a man's field have a special power.

Carly Simon

I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee.

Carly Simon

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.

Carly Simon

You don't have to prove to me you're beautiful to strangers, I've got loving eyes of my own.