Top 66 Quotes & Sayings by Carly Simon

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Carly Simon.
Last updated on November 23, 2024.
Carly Simon

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.

I took it to heart that in order to be a good person, you never said anything mean about anybody.
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.
The models for me were more the folk-rock singers of the '60s and '70s. — © Carly Simon
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.
Then I went through a big Peggy Lee stage, then I became Annie Ross, then Judy Collins.
I try to get to those peculiar and particular things that you never think of to say.
I think that I've got some pretty bad reviews on albums or songs that later proved themselves.
I had this terrible stammer, so I couldn't really speak properly until I was 16 or 17.
My father was a classical pianist, and my mother was a singer of just about everything.
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.
There was a French singer, Francoise Hardy - I used to look at her pictures and try to dress like her.
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.
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.
My scar is beautiful. It looks like an arrow. — © Carly Simon
My scar is beautiful. It looks like an arrow.
We are in this period now where we all are trying to be in shape physically and deny ourselves any pleasure.
As a singer I tried on all these hats, these voices, these clothes, and eventually out came me.
No, because I've never really changed my style that much.
So I suppose this slightly mature fashion sense happened because of what I had.
Do you know how many concerts I've done in my whole life, in more than 35 years of performing? Sixty-four.
Well, I make every song I sing personal. I've never chosen a song that wasn't.
No, because I was always nervous about being onstage.
I had a mastectomy in 1998, and then chemo.
You're lucky you had that when you were 20. I sure didn't. I was overweight, and I had acne.
Well, I tried to get a record deal in 1966 or '67, and everyone thought I was too eclectic.
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 just want to show off my scar proudly and not be afraid of it.
I think that most people really know if it's a really great album.
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.
I'm still more comfortable with standards than with my own songs.
Sometimes, but the year I lived in France I started to write songs.
We went to see all the shows. American musical theater and jazz were very big.
I always sang standards because the songs I wrote for myself weren't as easy to sing.
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.
But when we listened to the radio, it was Bill Haley and the Comets or the Everly Brothers.
A really strong woman accepts the war she went through and is ennobled by her scars.
We need role models who are going to break the mold.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Anticipation is making me late, it's keeping me waiting.
Everyone has problems, and learning to share them is essential. Hiding pain requires an enormous amount of energy; sharing it is liberating.
Life is a dream even in its most painful moments, it's a dream that we can dance to.
I took it to heart that in order to be a good person; you never said anything mean about anybody.
You're so vain. I bet you think this song is about you.
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.
Don't mind if I fall apart. There's more room in a broken heart.
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.
We change our opinions of ourselves so often. What the outside world thinks is only a small part of our image. — © Carly Simon
We change our opinions of ourselves so often. What the outside world thinks is only a small part of our image.
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.
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.
I haven't got time for the pain.
Undoubtedly, Patsy Cline was a trailblazer and in that respect, all women who are singular in a man's field have a special power.
I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee.
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.
You don't have to prove to me you're beautiful to strangers, I've got loving eyes of my own.
The sound of birds stops the noise in my mind.
You know, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997 I realized I had spent too long arranging my attitude.
I've learned that nobody's perfect, and I don't expect myself to be perfect anymore.
Worrying too much about other people's ears and not my own, I lost my way.
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