Carly Simon

There ain’t no freedom when you’ve got a worrying mind.

I have simply found a way of loving through whatever absences or dejections have fallen like tree branches in my path.

You can repeat the mistakes of your parents’ marriage or you can go out of your way not to repeat them.

Actually, I think the more Ben [Taylor] sings, the less like James he sounds.

I’m constantly reemerging in my life.

Fear came in so much in my life that it did everything but completely stop me.

To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there.

Family not only need to consist of merely those whom we share blood, but also for those whom we’d give blood.

Your children can be around you all day, but if you don’t spend quality time with them and you don’t pay attention to them and talk to them and listen to them, it doesn’t matter that they’re just around you.

Parents and children seldom act in concert: each child endeavors to appropriate the esteem or fondness of the parents, and the parents, with yet less temptation, betray each other to their children.

The family is very important. They make me feel good always because if I won, when I started to be famous, the relationship never changed with my friends and family.

I am an example of what is possible when girls from the very beginning of their lives are loved and nurtured by people around them.

I tell my children now that they are older, ‘If something happens to me… don’t make no big fuss over me. Don’t make no big expense on my funeral. Don’t put any pressure on the rest of the family. I’ve loved everybody, and I hope they loved me. But don’t create this big expense for the family.’

You have to get that mom face right, like, ‘Oh, did that happen? Tell me more.’ Trying not to react so you get the good information. I tried to tell Sasha and Malia, ‘Do not go to other 14-year-olds for information, ’cause all you all are dumb. Talk to me.’ It’s like, ‘All of you are dumb. You know nothing. Love you!’ So, let’s just talk about it. Don’t ask Olivia what she thinks about sex. She doesn’t know!

I believed in raising my children as I had been raised.

There’s a reason why people who’ve had bad relationships with their parents listen to angry stuff.

I learned more from my mother than from all the art historians and curators who have informed me about technical aspects of art history and art appreciation over the years.

A few years after my first son was born, he wanted to know how we chose his name, so I began reading him the story of Noah’s Ark.

The pressures of being a parent are equal to any pressure on earth. To be a conscious parent, and really look to that little being’s mental and physical health is a responsibility which most of us, including me, avoid most of the time, because it’s too hard…To put it loosely, the reason why kids are crazy is because nobody can face the responsibility of bringing them up…

Your parents leave you too soon and your kids and spouse come along late, but your siblings know you when you are in your most inchoate form. – Jeffrey Kluger

How do people make it through life without a sister?