Carly Simon

Music brought me closer to the idea of God.

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

I’ve sworn never to read any reviews ever again except those that are pointed out to me as nice ones. I would say that most of us who are considered in the artist realm just take it so terribly, and, you know, it can kill ya!

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.

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

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

It’s so much easier to tell people what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear.

The love we were promised in fairy tales was never something for us to find. It has always been something for us to create.

Do any of us really have a clue? We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. Or what word will come up in a conversation that will change our lives. You can be in the shower and scrubbing under your arm and find a lump that wasn’t there yesterday. I’m doing things here and now. Life is evolving. Every day life evolves.

Worry is the most wasteful thing in the world.

I don’t believe in geniuses, I believe in hard work.

If it were true that men could achieve their good by means of turning some men into sacrificial animals, and … if I were asked to serve the interests of society apart from, above and against my own I would refuse….I would fight in the full confidence of the justice of my battle and of a living being’s right to exist.

I appreciate a lot in this life; the things you cannot buy. Life is only once. I am happy being here and all the things that are a risk I normally avoid.

If He Tom Sawyer had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do and Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.

You’re never given more pain than you can handle. You never, ever get more than you can take.

The concept of shaking hands is absolutely terrible, and statistically I’ve been proven right.

If the human mind was simple enough to understand, we’d be too simple to understand it.

Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.

I think I always feel like if everything went to shit, I would just teach improv at a theatre.

I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.

The basically simple things are best, whether it’s automobiles or diets or philosophy.