Women Singers From The United States

"I never said, "Well, I don't have this and I don't have that." I said, "I don't have this yet, but I'm going to get it." The way I was thinking, I was choreographing my own life, figuring out which steps to take and, more importantly, picking the right time to take them."

"I am strong, I lived through a divorce, separation from my family, all kinds of hell. I never let it break me down. I'm not an alcoholic, I've never smoked, I've never done drugs. I've floated through the disaster of my past clean."

"My greatest beauty secret is being happy with myself. I don't use special creams or treatments – I'll use a little bit of everything. It's a mistake to think you are what you put on yourself. I believe that a lot of how you look is to do with how you feel about yourself and your life."

"People think my life has been tough but I think it's been a wonderful journey. The older you get, the more you realise it's not what happens, it's how you deal with it."

"I like me very much. When I look in the mirror and my skin glows back at me, I think, "Wow, that sure is pretty." I have a simple, childlike view of life, and I want to keep it. That's why I never got into that Beverly Hills world. So many pretentious people. They just aren't real."

"Even on the saddest days, one thing helps: treasuring happy memories and looking forward."

"Well, it was a church person in the early days, Mahalia Jackson. And Rosetta Tharpe. These spiritual, very strong voices. I only knew that they were figures in the black race, recognizable and respected. But I must admit, I've always covered the songs of males. I haven't followed up on women or listened to that much women's music."

"My work is noisy, but my life is quiet. I need nature and solitude — they nurture me. My idea of a vacation is reading a book on the terrace while my boyfriend cooks us dinner."

"I was never glamorous. I was always a little rock 'n' roll and a little funky and all of that. I didn't care about being glamorous and all of that. I just loved the freedom that I had and I enjoyed the work and the band and all of that. That was the love. That truly was the love at the time."

"As the first Black woman to fill a football stadium. That is a wish of mine. It hasn't been done. Janis Joplin did it for the White girls. I want to do it for the Blacks."

"I didn't have anybody, really, no foundation in life, so I had to make my own way. Always. From the start. I had to go out in the world and become strong, to discover my mission in life."

"If you are unhappy with anything — your mother, your father, your husband, your wife, your job, your boss, your car — whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you'll find that when you're free, your true creativity, your true self comes out."

"I will never give in to old age until I become old. And I am not old yet!"

"It hurts to have to remember those times, but at a certain stage forgiveness takes over. Forgiving means not to hold on. You let it go, because it only hurts you. Not forgiving, you suffer, 'cause you think about it over and over again. And for what? I had an abusive life, there's no other way to tell the story, it's a reality, it's a truth. That's what you've got. So you have to accept it."

"I like reading the comments on my online accounts as much as anyone. But I also know there is a lot of toxicity online, and many people aren’t as kind to others in the virtual world as my fans are to me. Commonplace distortions in the online world — with manipulated images and selective sharing that shows people enjoying a seemingly carefree, “perfect” life — are an unhealthy influence on the mind, especially young minds. From the priorities I see being valued online today, and in the media in general, it’s no wonder that many people think that aspiring to be a billionaire is the most important thing in the world. It’s no wonder people feel increasingly divided and lonely. In reality, what we need most right now are legions of billionaires of the heart, multitudes of masters of the mind, and models of peace, equality, and unity in diversity. That, in my opinion, is what upcoming generations need to see. I hope that, somehow, in the near future, the various technological poisons that society is facing can be turned into healing medicine. At the moment, the best solution is to simply spend less time on our phones, tablets, and computers and more time with each other, with real human beings, face-to-face, heart-to-heart. When I’m at home with Erwin, we make it a point not to get distracted by phones at mealtimes. Not that screens and devices are the only culprits. I often find it hard to tear myself away from the book I’m reading — I know you can relate if you love to read as much as I do. But I resist, because no novel can compare to sharing time with my dear partner. I know that the last thing anyone ever wants to do is think about death, but as someone who has faced my own mortality time and again, I am all too aware that life is short and can end at any moment. Being always aware of the limited time we have here on Earth, and making the most of it, for the good of all, is also a part of my spiritual practice."

"We must do our part to prevent barriers from rising between one human heart and another. We must curb the trend of neighbors no longer knowing each other, while they seek a sense of shared identity with people elsewhere, perhaps even in other countries, separating themselves along racial, religious, or national lines. This fracturing of society is unsustainable. We all have a number of aspects to our identities. My identity has included many ingredients in this lifetime, including: daughter, sister, Baptist, singer, American, mother, Buddhist, actress, Swiss, spouse, and more. But the most important, core identity that I share with you and every other person on the planet is this: human. I believe that only by awakening to this shared identity can we save ourselves, individually and collectively, from the problems we face around the world. We must urgently work together to find solutions that can transform the global poisons of systemic racism and homophobia, climate crisis, pandemics, loss of the Amazon jungle, factory farming of animals, fossil fuel consumption, nuclear weapons, plastic pollution, and more. The universal solution to all of the problems confronting humanity is for us to unite as one global team, honoring our truest roots as members of the same circle of life. Uniting in this spirit is my hope and prayer for future generations."

"One of my fondest personal memories was Lena Horne and Mike Douglas. We were booked to do "Here's to My Lady" and a prolonged medley together on a Kraft Music Hall Special. I was so thrilled, I kept making mistakes in rehearsal just so we'd have to do it over again."

"My friend, Miss Lena Horne"

"I am not alone. I am free. I no longer have to be a credit, I don't have to be a symbol to anybody, I don't have to be a first to anybody. I don't have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I'd become. I'm me, and I'm like nobody else."

""Always be smarter than the people who hire you.“"

"I made a promise to myself to be kinder to other people."

"It's so nice to get flowers while you can still smell the fragrance."

"Don't be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can, because when you feel nothing, it's just death."

"Critics have long wondered whether Coloratura Jenkins' art can be described as singing at all. But she will intrepidly attack any aria, scale its altitudes in great swoops and hoots, assaying its descending trills with the vigor of a maudlin cuckoo."

"She never knew how bad she was."

"Mrs. Jenkins could dream if she could not sing."

"People may say I can't sing, but no one can ever say I didn't sing."

"The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends."

"[About George McGovern] He is a spiritually evolved political leader."

"Quite often I feel forced to write against the stereotype. As much as you would like to ignore the stereotype, saying it's totally irrelevant, actually you can't. It impinges on your life a lot, it impacts on your work, and I know that quite often I write against the stereotype and I react against the stereotype. One stereotype of Asian Americans is that we're really serious, and we never have any fun, and we have no sense of humor. When Shirley MacLaine made an early trip to China and then she came back with a documentary, one of the things she said on the documentary was that "they have no sense of humor," and "we told all these jokes and they didn't laugh." I think I might overemphasize showing how Chinese and Chinese Americans are the most raucous people: they laugh so much, they're telling jokes, and they're always standing up and performing for one another. They're so outgoing. And so in China Men and in Tripmaster Monkey I really go overboard to emphasize that part of the character. I also think that being able to laugh and to be funny-those are really important human characteristics, and when we say that people don't have those characteristics, then we deny them their humanity."

"Herbert von Karajan always rolled out a magic carpet for us, the singers. With him, our musical work took on another dimension."

"When you’re an introvert like me and you’ve been lonely for a while, and then you find someone who understands you, you become really attached to them. It’s a real release."

"My best friends are rappers my boyfriends have been rappers. My dearest friends have been from all over the place, so before you make comments again about a WOC/POC issue, I’m not the one storming the capital, I’m literally changing the world by putting my life and thoughts and love out there on the table 24 seven. Respect it."

"There is a high fantasy element in the music, but I’m incredibly plugged into what’s going on politically, socially and pretty much in every way except pop-culturally. I’ve had a very real life, and there have been a lot of things that took a lot of strength and wherewithal to figure out… things I’m still figuring out. That’s probably why the music has such an element of escapism to it"

"I have a personal ambition to live my life honestly and honor the true love that I’ve had and also the people I’ve had around me. I want to stay hopeful, even though I get scared about why we’re even alive at all."

"I wanted to be part of a high-class scene of musicians. It was half-inspired because I didn't have many friends, and I was hoping that I would meet people and fall in love and start a community around me, the way they used to do in the '60s."

"If all that I was actually going to be allowed to have by the media was money, loads of money, then fuck it … What I actually wanted was something quiet and simple: a writer's community and respect."

"I've been living in New York for about seven years and a lot of the people that I started singing with don't sing any more, don't write any more. So the fact that I can still do that that's kind of a gift, that's what I sort of stay focused on."

"If you consider the definition of authenticity, it's saying something and actually doing it. I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It's all authentic."

"I have everything I want. I really can't think of any ambitions or things to strive for. I don't want to leave the house, I'm happy at home, I really am. I am."

"Being human is difficult. Some people make it more difficult than others. I was one of those people."

"What she is inadvertently doing is making a mockery of those for whom poverty is not a choice and does not last for a just few days. It’s poverty tourism, plain and simple, and it needs to stop."

"When I found somebody who I fell in love with, it made me feel different than I felt the rest of the day. It was electrifying. That's what inspired the 'Off to the Races' melodies. That's one of the times when you're feeling electrified by someone else and they make you happy to be alive."

"It is absolutely absurd that someone with so much to give would choose to play-act poor for awareness."

"When you go to Paris and your concierge sends you to some restaurant because they get a kickback, it’s like, ‘No. Where should I really be? Where is the great bar with organic wine? Where do I get a bikini wax in Paris?’ source"

"We’re human beings and the sun is the sun — how can it be bad for you? I think we should all get sun and fresh air. I don’t think anything that is natural can be bad for you — it’s really good to have at least 15 minutes of sun a day. source"

"I don’t hold on to fear as much as I used to, because I’ve learned a lot about genuinely not caring what strangers think about me. It’s very liberating. It’s very empowering, and I’ve learned a lot of that from Jay—Shawn Carter—Z, because his approach to life is very internal. It’s a very good lesson to learn. source"

"Well, I lost half-a-day of skiing"

"It is possible to be a woman who is intelligent, thoughtful, articulate, ambitious while being a woman who is maternal, nurturing, sexual and for other women."

"First of all I was like, ‘I’m the most hated celebrity?’ More than, like, ? What did I do? All I can do is be my authentic self, but I think there are things about me that make people draw conclusions. For example, there is the perception that I grew up very wealthy and that I was given, you know, that I was sort of raised with a silver spoon in my mouth, which inspires a lot of resentment. He [my father] said, ‘You are completely on your own. So he never gave me anything. I never had any supplementation, he never helped me with my rent, I never had a trust fund. So the idea that I am spoiled or that I didn’t work for what I have, that’s just not accurate. But I can see how somebody might have that perception."