Carly Simon

I’m constantly reemerging in my life.

When I’m feeling anxious or depressed, I do find it helps to reach for a pen and paper. There is something about writing things down, that hand-eye combination, that makes me feel calmer.

The other day I came across a recording I made of a night at my apartment when I was living with Kris Kristofferson. Bob Dylan had been around earlier and we were all passing around the guitar. Whenever it came to my turn I would run into the kitchen and say I’d left the coffee on the stove or something. Shyness. Scared to perform.

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

From the first time I saw a picture of him, James Taylor was it — the ultimate Orpheus of all my fantasies.

Music brought me closer to the idea of God.

I think the golden rule for men should be: If you’re a man, don’t say anything to a woman on the street that you wouldn’t want a man saying to you in prison.

No woman gets an orgasm from shining the kitchen floor.

My first instinct is great pride for all of us as women who are finding our voices.

There needs to be more variety on television so young girls growing up don’t feel pressured to look one specific way. Tall, thin, curvy, short, whatever you are, you are beautiful.

What sometimes is missing for young girls is that so early in our lives we’re shushed. And not just directly shushed. Sometimes we’re treated a little too preciously. They treat us like a doll. They don’t treat us like real beings, equal partners. I was loved early by my father, but I was never so precious that he didn’t think I could be there at the table.

I have tremendous respect for women.

We think – or maybe we’re shown – that the only way to express ourselves is through that very sexy energy. I think there’s more than that which shows our power. For me, I sometimes feel the most sexy when I’m totally covered head to toe.

You can’t whisper magical thoughts in your daughter’s ear and go into a workplace where you tolerate [this] existence. If you are tolerating that, that’s the workplace that will be waiting for your little girl, and you have sold her a bill of goods.

I’m definitely a feminist. I’m f*cking disgusted by the way women are still treated.

I’m usually good about my temper, but all these men trying to control women’s bodies are really beginning to piss me off.

Strong men, men who are truly role models, don’t need to put down women to make themselves feel powerful.

[on her mother] she’s a very smart, independent woman who was kind of coming into her own in the feminist movement of the 70s and 80s

But let me tell you, this gender thing is history. You’re looking at a guy who sat down with Margaret Thatcher across the table and talked about serious issues.

The abuse of women and girls is the most pervasive and unaddressed human rights violation on earth.

Nobody says hey, men should not drink. It’s all about women must dress differently , women must walk differently, women must drink differently. Why are we not able to hold men to account for this behavior?