Carly Simon

There are a few things that were just sheer, unadulterated joy, like the birth of my children.

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

[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.

Seeing things that are bothering you written down takes away their power. It gives you a perspective. Helps you contain them.

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

I always live in some kind of anticipation of something good happening.

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.

Jazz is not just music, it’s a way of life, it’s a way of being, a way of thinking.

For years the Trio did nothing but play for musicians and other hip people. We practically starved to death.

Music’s been around a long time, and there’s going to be music long after Ray Charles is dead. I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind. If it’s a big record, that’s the frosting on the cake, but music’s the main meal.

Musicians have a really big part to play in spreading messages because they’re able to reach a large portion of people on an emotional level. Artists reach people at their heart; it’s the only time we meet in one place and put our differences aside. When you’re in a forum listening to music, all you feel in that moment is love and the understanding.

Know the business; you need to know the business side of things.

Find the best teachers, listen to the finest playing and try to emulate that. Be true to the music.

I don’t think anybody steals anything; all of us borrow.

Good music is good music and everything else can go to hell.

Sometimes I just think that there are more things to be said to make the audience understand what I’m trying to do more. When I’m singing, I don’t want you to just hear the melody. I want you to relive the story, because most of the songs have pretty good storytelling.

Mozart in his music was probably the most reasonable of the world’s great composers. It is the happy balance between flight and control, between sensibility and self-discipline, simplicity and sophistication of style that is his particular province… Mozart tapped once again the source from which all music flows, expressing himself with a spontaneity and refinement and breath-taking rightness that has never since been duplicated.

Music was our wife, and we loved her. And we stayed with her, and we clothed her, and we put diamond rings on her hands.

It’s easy to play any musical instrument, just touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself.

During these years I began to feel an increasing dissatisfaction with the relations of the music-loving public and the living composer. It seemed to me that we composers were in danger of working in a vacuum.

Hipness is what it is. But sometimes hipness is what it ain’t.