Women Singers From The United States

"A hug is a tribute to connection between two humans."

"Colella has carried several short-lived Broadway shows on her back. It's fitting, then, that she earned her first Tony nomination for "Come From Away," in which she plays Beverley Bass, the real-life pilot who on Sept. 11, 2001, carried dozens to refuge."

"I actually went to visit her in her home in Florida, in her vacation home. I got to spend some time with her away from Come From Away, away from the theater, away from interviews, and it was very, very dear. We had long deep talks about our feelings, about our families, about how we move through the world. It really helped me come back into the role this time."

"Life doesn’t always give breaks to those that deserve it—but we knew that already."

"Last time I checked, I had some cancer in my lungs, spine and my liver."

"We're all a little lost and that's alright."

"You can't wait until life isn't hard anymore before you decide to be happy."

"Please stop acting like you don’t know what this is. He murdered two people. And will walk free. You’ve never in your life heard of a POC that killed two people and got to walk free. #WhitePrivilege"

"By the time we married, I realized I could survive without him, and he realized he didn’t want to survive without me. I liked that. That’s a good attitude to enter a marriage with."

"Even at 95, I remember everything. Closure is never complete. I didn’t ask for Hollywood, it discovered me."

"I'm just so sick of new artists picking themselves apart trying to find something different about themselves. I'm not going to buy into it, because, quite frankly, I hate images. I'm just going to be me, whatever that is, and do my music, because it makes me happy. What makes me different is really up to you guys."

"The lyrics are the most important part for me and I spend most of my time on the lyrics. When I’m in that process, I try to write every morning. I wake up and write and then just spend as much time as I can generating content and lyrics. Nothing happens until the music exists and then I’m writing to the music. So the other stuff is just sort of like collecting ideas and trying to frame different narratives and capture different emotions that I want to convey."

"It’s been very freeing to get out the suspense stage and be able to play the songs live. I can’t be happier. I’m pretty surprised that with this kind of content and showing this kind of vulnerability, it’s really sweet to see how people have responded in kind with their own vulnerability. It’s a very humane interaction. I think that everyone has familial issues that they deal with, so it’s a common ground that’s immediately laid down. Even in interviews, music writers have been more forthcoming with their own personal encounters. It’s so different than the run-of-the-mill releasing a record and doing promo and whatever. The shows have been so sweet, and it’s very rewarding to be that emotional and that vulnerable in front of people."

"The album was the creation of a space where all of the different lives I’ve led. My life has been really divided and this was a place where I could finally gather them all up and they would be in one place. So that my professional life and personal life exist together."

"I had these ideas, which propelled some of the songwriting, that I was moving to a different place with. I thought it would be more change. I thought, “Maybe I’ll call him,” or whatever, which I haven’t done. But it was really important to me. These were the songs that were going to exist in this time. I wanted to be performing songs that meant something emotionally to me, and it would be this vulnerability that is liberating and also necessary."

"I wanted to try to be a real live person, rather than just singing songs about them."

"Step by step Heart to heart Left, right, left We all fall down Like toy soldiers. Bit by bit Torn apart We never win But the battle wages on For toy soldiers."

"Not ever in depth. When I was first starting out, it was so much about me and my ethnicity. I was really turned off to that. But now I’ve seen that it’s just really important to bolster that part of it as well, just so that there’s an example of someone—a woman of color—doing something that may or may not be within the realm of what is expected."

"Love... Thy will be done I can no longer hide, I can no longer run No longer can I resist Your guiding light That gives me the power 2 keep up the fight. Oh Lord, Love... Thy will be done Since I have found you, my life has just begun And I see all of Your creations as one perfect complex No one less beautiful or more special than the next We are all blessed and so wise 2 accept Thy will, Love, be done."

"You know, what's so funny is that I actually feel lighter than I ever have in my life — outside of what's happening. But sometimes I think the service of a song is just to capture a moment or an emotion, and I really loved the catharsis of a more plaintive and plain statement."

"I don’t want [listeners] to be sad, but I appreciate that that’s a part of emotion, and if I can help bring it out if it needs to be brought out, then yes, it is an honor. Any time someone brings what you’ve made into their life and interprets it however is most beneficial to them, it’s a true honor."

"When you play a character, you learn the inner workings of someone's heart. I've learned something about myself through every character I've played!"

"I don’t think about the past except now, when we’re talking about it, I never felt I was really there anyway. I always pictured myself as a fly who was up in the corner looking down at myself. I never feel I was there. I’m not very sentimental when it comes to the past, I don’t live there and I feel for people who do because it’s never going to be the same as you remember it."

"People do feel very entitled to say something negative as if that is their job, or if they have any reason, or as if they know that much. They usually don’t. So, I find it kind of funny, honestly. And, that’s how I deal with a lot of things, and that’s how I would deal with a bullying situation, is that I would try and find humor in it."

"Whenever I meet someone, talk to someone on the phone, it’s a great feeling, knowing you’ve made their day or that they love the show and they love watching. I mean, it gives them something to do. It’s a great feeling."

"Just because your smart may not be conventional, doesn’t make it any less important or credible."

"I’ve never been one to fit into a box. I’ve never been normal. I think that this is part of the reason why I love this life that I live, and that I am an actor, and I am a chameleon, because I am okay with the not knowing sometimes, and I’m okay with the questioning and I’m okay with being different"

"I can't now say what it was that originally drew me to performing, because it's very possible that at 6 it was just that I wanted people to be looking at me and paying attention to me. Then it sort of transformed into something that was really meaningful for me. ... It became the way that I learn about myself and the way that I learn about other people."

"No matter what press you're doing, it's kind of a narcissistic exercise. And you start to hate the sound of your own voice and want to talk about anything besides yourself, and that's when you're talking about a movie. It's amazing how quickly the topic of me gets boring. I definitely feel like I get personal a lot more quickly, I suppose because if I were promoting a movie and somebody asked me about my first boyfriend, I would be like, 'None of your [bleeping] business.' But now it's like, I guess we're going there. And that's on me."

"He don’t know how the devil comes Right out under the midday sun How he hungers for a way to make control How he’d throw my body down How I’ll never make a sound How he’s waiting around the corner"

"The rules I want to break The games I love to play I know I shouldn't say It's burning up my time"

"We come together Baby, can you feel it? We're all torn up inside"

"You've got to know your power"

"It's midnight in Vegas And oh, I want to be famous And oh, I'm willing to get it just right for you That's why I'm spread on the bed tonight I'm feeling so dead inside"

"I make a lot of bad decisions"

"I enjoy strategizing and planning releases as packages, not just throwing them out willy nilly. But honestly, in today's music culture, every form of expression becomes valid if you give it your authentic effort."

"When I wear the crown You bow down!"

"Hot take: this is probably not the first time it’s Rapist v. Rapist for president"

"I can’t think of anyone more suited for Eurovision. She’s an LGBT artist, an absolute live performance beast, she’s drop-dead gorgeous, and her ever-changing genre-defying music would totally speak to all sub-fandoms. She’s made of the same material as Eurovision winners."

""We’re all living double lives: There’s the skin we wear on the surface, and then the one we keep to ourselves – the part of us that indulges in curiosities and fantasies we wouldn’t dare admit to the world, let alone ourselves."

"Music is like food. It is necessary for me to stay alive. It is a fundamental part of being a human being. It is sustenance, full of different flavors, full of culture and beauty... I also just really love food, so, this is my analogy, I guess."

"Men will tell you what you are From the day you are born ‘til the day when your heart stops beating They give you their names"

"I have to know what I'm doing I don't know what I'm doing Not gonna lie to you No idea what I'm doing right now"

"I'm not watching Idol this season. I stopped watching after the Fantasia season because I loved her so much I didn't want to go through that process with anyone else."

"We can’t lose the arts in schools. We just cannot. I would not have graduated school had I not had my drama program or my music program. My sisters are both musicians. My little sister teaches music at a school in Afghanistan, so that’s how important music was to all of us in my family growing up. My mom taught music as well for a while at schools. It’s just been part of my life and I can’t understand how it’s even an option to take it out of schools. It helps the creative process so much—and even math skills, learning how to tell time signatures—it’s all related. I’m a huge advocate for music in schools. It’s weird to me that someone came up with the idea that it shouldn’t be. I also hate that people have to choose between sports and music. A lot of kids get into theatre or get into sports because they had to make a choice and I don’t understand why you can’t do both things."

"Coming from that place of knowing you are here for a purpose; you're here for a reason; that nobody is on this planet by accident... If you have that as your armor, you can show up as a performer and then see what you bring to the room. That's a good place to be in. I also tell people that it's really important to have the desire to perform, but also the willingness to do the work. What I mean by work, as any aspiring musical theatre kid knows, is singing all the time; taking dance and acting classes; doing monologues by yourself in your room etc. Whatever it is, do the work and do the necessary self-work too. Get therapy if you need therapy! I love therapy. It's so helpful to go. As actors, we portray so many different kinds of human being, so don't you also want to explore your own healing and better understand the human condition?"

"First step, you got to spend more time in the mirror…Because once you get in the mirror and you start finding shit that you do like about yourself, you’re going to stay in the motherfucking mirror trying to perfect that. That’s how I am. Like, ‘OK, what do you got going on? Bitch, you look good as fuck today!’"

"Women, we naturally want to be the best…And I can’t be mad at the next girl for wanting to be the best! Why would I get mad at you for saying you the baddest? Why can’t we both agree that we bad, and that just be that?"

"I want to tell that story to people that, even though I was chasing my dream, I still was able to get my education…I really want young girls to want to go to college. My grandma and my momma will be so proud too."

"Believe it or not, I used to be a little shy…I never wanted anybody to know that I could even rap. Even when I got to college and I told my best friend I could rap, she’ll be like, ‘OK. Well, then rap.’ She wanted me to rap and I wouldn’t do it. But then we went to a kickback and I just started rapping. . . . I was confident in myself, but I didn’t really know how people would react to how I thought about myself on the inside."