Carly Simon

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

[Ben Taylor] He is an interesting combination of the two of us. His voice box is more like mine but the way his tongue sits in his mouth, and the way he pronounces words, is just like James Taylor.

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.

I’m constantly reemerging in my life.

I think when you get married, it’s not a totally free ride – it’s not without its unglamorous periods and its fights and its angry noons and silent dawns or vice-versa.

I grew up not understanding what was true and what was not true. It gave me a sense of unreality.

Today Jazz music is performed and listened to by people of all ethnicity, backgrounds, ages and creeds.

You have to pack as much as you can in an hour or 70 minutes. This time around it was 15 songs, so it was a challenge to get them all the right length so you could get them all on.

You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.

Jazz is a sideways glance at music. It’s like being an architect, knowing the basis of design but understanding that the façade can be whatever you dream. I’m a free person. I don’t want to be tied down.

The way I feel today, as long as my health is good and I can handle myself well and people still come to my concerts, still buy my CDs, I’ll keep playing until I feel like I can’t.

For me, music and life are all about style

They’re not particular whether you’re playing a flat 5th or a ruptured 129th as long as they can dance.

Jazz is not background music. You must concentrate in order to get the most out of it. You must absorb it.

I’ll always write music. Whether I release a record, whether I let the public hear it or not, I’m always writing music.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

When you just get mixed up and there’s too much going on, then it’s time to pick up your guitar.

Music is what feelings sound like.

I don’t have a favorite song that I’ve written. But I do have a favorite song: ‘Always on My Mind,’ the Willie Nelson version. If I could sing it like he do, I would sing it every night. I like the story it tells.

Bebop was about change, about evolution. It wasn’t about standing still and being safe.

Music’s a good thing, it calm the beast in the man.