Carly Simon

I sought some kind of freedom in music, in the promise of transcendence and the idea that the purity and the innocence of a mythical god could somehow deliver me from darkness.

One of the things about creativity is you can be in denial about these things. When I found out I had cancer, there were four hours in which I was pounding my head on the marble kitchen top saying, “I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it.” But then I felt as if this little army in uniform was flooding me. They had come to help me fight it. I felt really strong about it after that. It was one of the strongest periods of my life.

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

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

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.

Partnerships must have loyalty and integrity at their core.

No one has done a study on this, as far as I can tell, but I think Facebook might be the first place where a large number of people have come out. We didn’t create that – society was generally ready for that. I think this is just part of the general trend that we talked about, about society being more open, and I think that’s good.

Breakups are a horrible thing for almost everybody I know. For someone who is a love addict, it’s debilitating.

I only f**k with people who are secure enough to be happy for me and hype me up. I don’t want any ‘friends’ who fall silent during my success.

I never talk about my wife: we’re both in public professions but we try to keep our private life private.

My dad used to say, ‘You wouldn’t worry so much about what people thought about you if you knew how seldom they did.

I was lucky I always got along with girls. It was never like a big deal. I had a lot of girls that I was friends with that I wasn’t sexual with. I think having two older sisters made me comfortable like that. I just like people, so I can just go up and say whatever.

By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll be happy. If you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher… and that is a good thing for any man.

I have had young fascinations but never love.

One of the reasons why I think that me and Kim are very powerful together isn’t just the concept of celebrity or this mega rap star and this mega-beautiful pop star. It’s something I explain to my girl: She is who she is. I am who I am. We have advisers and friends and everything, but those people are who they are and we are who we are. And what I had to learn from Kim is how to take more of her advice and less of other people’s advice. There’s a lot of Kim K skills that were added. In order to win at life, you need some Kim K skills, period.

Dear Ladies: You should never need to prove to other women that he’s in love with you. That’s his job.

It’s very easy for me to thank everyone for the incredible contribution they’ve made to my life.

I guess I am just not the marrying type. I have given it a few chances, and it just goes haywire after a month or two. I am on wife number five right now, maybe five’s a charm?

I think that the fact that a relationship becomes public is a bit of a bummer. Because it can distract from the real reason why you’re together, which is that you just like each other.

I would never buy Ivana any decent jewels or pictures. Why give her negotiable assets?