Carly Simon Quotes

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

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.

In other words, I built on what I had.

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.

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.

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

I had this terrible stammer, so I couldn`t really speak properly until I was 16 or 17.

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

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

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.

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

You`re lucky you had that when you were 20. I sure didn`t. I was overweight, and I had acne.

So many artists who came out during that time, including myself, were able to get on radio. New forms of singer-songwriters developed out of that.

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

I had a mastectomy in 1998, and then chemo.

No, because I was always nervous about being onstage.

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.

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

I always sang standards because the songs I wrote for myself weren`t as easy to sing.

My scar is beautiful. It looks like an arrow.

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

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

Well, I make every song I sing personal. I`ve never chosen a song that wasn`t.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You usually can`t tell what`s inspiring until you look back on it.

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