Women Singers

"When I first released the song [Quiet], I put on my site like, "I'm a survivor of abuse and anorexia and this is my song in response to it." And so when the song went viral, it became "the anti-Trump song," it was like a really political thing. And I'm so glad I stuck to the truth...I was like I'm not going to try to please others and say, oh yeah, this is not political. I just stuck with what it really was, my truth."

"I was put on a diet when I was 10. My mother said that women with smaller mouths are attractive, so keep my mouth small, don't talk or laugh so loud. I was taught to observe and listen. I burnt time burning calories when I could have been thinking about other things."

"[It is] so important for women of color to have a voice, because we have been living in a paradigm where women of color, and men of color, and all genders in-between color — our voices have not been as quote-unquote "valuable." That is a problem because that creates a sense of not belonging, and invisibility. I felt so voiceless, and like I didn't matter. Like I was an inconvenience of space because I didn't look like the woman in the magazine or I didn't have the same upbringing as the people I was watching on television. But now that women of color are rising...a lot of women of color are bearing a lot of responsibility of healing their cultures, and there's a way that women are able to empathize deeply, and they are able to express things that can maybe help the mainstream culture understand. Because I think the more we tell different types of stories, the more tolerance there will be."

"The message that really pisses me off is like, "Well, women in the Middle East are getting their genitalia cut, so you should just shut up." That is completely wrong. The point is we're not all truly free until we're all free, and the women who have mouthpieces need to speak up for the women in other places, and for men too."

"...when, oh, when I see your face, yeah And, oh, when I'm in your warm embrace I know for sure our love is something special"

"Things have changed, sound systems now work - on occasion. Various things are made easier in some ways for the artists. All the things I used to want to do and get right, and became known as being difficult cause I wanted them... they are now part of a parcel of a tour, and it will be a delight to work under that system."

"I was ready to work; what I couldn't was the right producer. I had considered various people like the people who do Randy Newman and talked to Ted Templeman who was doing Carly Simon at that time. Again, availability. I wasn't at the right place and right time. They were busy. And the thought of Roy was very strange, I mean, it was a bizarre combination. But I didn't know; I think a lot of people don't know what a very broad musical background he does have; He started out at Decca in the classical department and sort of regressed through Frank Chacksfield and Mantovani, passed through that into pop music and really got into heavy stuff; into rock. But I didn't know he had that background and it was nice. He has incredibly good judgments."

"It was that I felt that I'd done as much as I could do there [in England]. I didn't know what direction I could go, apart from across the sea."

"Irishness is a state of mind rather than a geographic thing. I’m not English. My name is O’Brien and I’m glad it is. I’ve got nothing against the English and I’m glad I was born here. But I’m glad my mother came from Kerry and I’m glad my name is Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien and I can weep at Riverdance on TV, and it makes me laugh."

"The magic of my situation with Johnny Franz was that he allowed me the freedom to follow my enthusiasm. He’d sit in the control room while I’d go out and scowl at the musicians. It was very difficult for them because they’d never heard this stuff before. I’m asking somebody with a stand-up bass to play Motown bass-lines, and it was a shock. The ones who thought I was a cow I didn’t work with again. The ones who wanted to learn with me, they had the greatest time. Johnny had played piano for Anne Shelton, and had perfect pitch. Bless his heart, he’d sit there and read Popular Mechanics. But he had good ears, he’d suddenly look up from Popular Mechanics and go, E flat! I never took the producer’s credit for two reasons. For one, he deserved it and I was grateful. And then there was the calculating part of me that that thought it looked too slick for me to produce and sing. Because women didn’t do that. And there remains in the British audience, though less so, that attitude of ‘Don’t get too slick on us. Don’t be too smart or we won’t love you.’ And I wanted to be loved."

"I'm glad to see that royality isn't confined to the box."

"Many other people say I'm bent, and I've heard it so many times that I've almost learned to accept it ... I know I'm perfectly as capable of being swayed by a girl as by a boy. More and more people feel that way and I don't see why I shouldn't."

"I didn't invent an image. It just sorta grew on me, like a fungus or whatever it is. It was an extension of me. Well: I did say at seventeen, "I'm going to invent Dusty Springfield", but it was an extension of Mary O'Brien, convent schoolgirl. And I think that's what [Sheena]'s probably got, and there are too many people flashing around, saying "You gotta develop an image, kid!" I think that you know, singing and songs are the things that are the most important thing. An image comes when you present yourself to the public. And the public really kind of accepts you or they don't accept you. Trying to invent something that's not natural to you will be a disaster."

"People resent change, I think in some ways, but they forget that they've changed too. I think most of us changed for the better rather than the worst."

"Dusty sings around her material, creating music that's evocative rather than overwhelming ... Dusty is not searching – she just shows up, and she, and we, are better for it."

"...If I had to pick one artist who, song after song, always touched something deep inside me, it would be Dusty. I loved her work from the moment I heard I Only Want to Be with You in 1963, her first major hit. The sound was different from anything I had heard before - it made a visceral connection."

"Now, when you pass my way I guess I'll smile and say To think that boy was mine Once upon a time"

"It’s quite simple, all who have worked with known predators should do 3 simple things. 1) Believe survivors 2) Apologize for putting your careers and wallets before what was right. 3) Grab a spine and denounce. If you do not do these things you are still moral cowards."

"I just think they’re douchebags. They’re not champions. I just think they’re losers. I don’t like them. How do I explain the fact that I got a GQ Man of the Year award and no women’s magazines and no women’s organisations have supported me?"

"I never said #MeToo is a lie. Ever. I was talking about Hollywood and Time’s Up, not #MeToo. Ugh. I’m so tired of erroneous sh*tstorms. #MeToo is about survivors and their experiences, that cannot be taken away."

"I got to know Asia Argento ten months ago. Our commonality is the shared pain of being assaulted by Harvey Weinstein. My heart is broken. I will continue my work on behalf of victims everywhere. None of us know the truth of the situation and I’m sure more will be revealed. Be gentle."

"At 13, I decided to give up all meat and fish. My parents were even more surprised and cautiously supportive – provided I learned how to get enough protein. The first vegetarian cookbook I ever bought to learn more about how to be a healthy vegetarian was "Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking." In a very pragmatic way, Linda McCartney helped me meet my mother’s conditions for being a vegetarian, to get enough protein and eat a well-balanced diet and, in the process, helped both my mom and me feel good about the choice I had made."

"I'm trying to reproduce healthily in a vegetarian way every kind of flesh there is — bacon, smoked salmon, roast meat. We're working on it. A lot of vegetarians complain that my book [Linda McCartney's Home Cooking] is meat-oriented and some of the products look like meat. For me, though, it's a matter of not just preaching — I hate to do it and it doesn't work — but helping to make the alternatives more attractive to more people. Change the eating habits and maybe you change the thinking habits. … I'm convinced that part of the reason the world is so sick is that so many people eat flesh. What are you doing but eating a slab of fear? … Look how long it took to abolish slavery. There was a time when much of the "civilized" world thought it was acceptable. And then they saw that it was wrong. I think the same thing will happen with eating animals. I have faith that the day will come when the world looks back and says, "How could we have done that?""

"People are a bit blind. They don’t see life. Being a photographer I see life, every inch of it. I’m obsessed with nature and animals and the earth; I find concrete things that distract me. Most people are the opposite… they find life boring, squirrels or sparrows boring, whereas I find them fascinating. It has to do with the way we live. It probably started with religion which leads some people astray. To fight over whose god is better has nothing to do with love or spirituality. Perhaps it’s guilt. We are suppressed and spend our time trying to figure out who we are. The most shocking thing I’ve learned concerns abuse, child abuse, animal abuse, abuse to every living creature. There is a world of little Hitlers out there. Slaughterhouses, vivisection and experimenting on animals for no reason is sick. Luckily younger people are becoming more aware."

"This woman was Cathy Berberian, a personality in her own right, an artist of the rarest kind and a splendid singer to boot. Everything she did bore the hallmarks of authenticity. Whether it was early music (Monteverdi) or contemporary works (Berio, Kurt Weill and Stravinsky), everything rang true. And as for Debussy, I don't think anyone could sing him better. She has a way with Sprechgesang that won me over completely. She's a mistress of metamorphosis, a female chameleon. At the time of her concert, she was suffering from a dreadful cold, but it didn't stop her from singing for a moment. Mastery and total freedom. And the wit that she brought to her impersonations! And the way the danced the Azerbaijani song, as well as the Offenbach and Gershwin! What a phenomenal talent!"

"I enjoyed being in The Ten Commandments. That was a great experience—to suddenly become one of those holy people. I was holier than thou."

"I think Yvonne De Carlo was more famous than Lily. But I gained the younger audience through The Munsters. And it was a steady job."

"My mother was the shaping force in my life. Don't ask me how but she always had money for my dancing lessons. She was convinced I was going to be somebody."

"One critic called me one of the most magnificent resources Canada has allowed to escape to the United States. Because I was born and raised in Vancouver and lived up there until I was 17. My kids sons Bruce and Michael are, of course, American citizens. But not me. I defiantly refuse to change."

"Reality to me is a home, my kids, best friends and only then a career and the limelight. I never thought like Marilyn Monroe that I was washed up when I was 35."

"Anne Baxter's death is a shattering shock to all of us who loved her and had the privilege of working with her."

"We've lost a remarkable actress and a significant star. I ... found her to be an extraordinary performer and a fine woman."

"When the stage musical came along, I was asked to play Margo [the Bette Davis role in the movie] to replace Betty Bacall, and I first thought it was gimmicky. But I can sing, or rather croak, and I wanted to do Broadway—and it turned out just fine. One matinee day Bette Davis phoned and said she was coming to check me out, and we got a chair placed just behind the curtain so she could watch without the audience watching her. After the curtain came down she said, "Baxter, you can still astonish me." And she left. Just like that. On another occasion, she was in Chicago to receive the real and I popped out to give it to her. Get it? Eve giving Margo the award she'd first won. She looked hesitant when she saw me and then roared with laughter. She got it, she really got it."

"I can report was twice as acerbic in person than on camera as Addison Dewitt. He was just plain nasty to poor Marilyn Monroe, who was always quaking in her boots. He'd pat her on the rump and say, "You almost got through that two-line speech, my dear. Shall we try again?""

"I loved that one because Greg Peck usually was so stolid in his pictures. Billy made him relax more than usual. He was playing an outlaw and I was shacked up in this ghost town with my pa and the outlaws are trying to smoke us out. Well, there's one line where I remark about his body odor and Greg tried to get it removed, saying it might undermine his box office appeal among girls. And Billy just chuckled and kept on shooting."

"Adored him, but he was a lost soul. Kept saying, "They don't make films here like we do in France, n'est-ce pas?" [...] We filmed indoors on a studio stage with a recreated swamp. Jean could only clasp his arms and look horrified. He was limited in camera angles because of the transparency screens—a movement of inches and the screens would be exposed. And his English was learned from books. In conversation, he was terrible. One day he told a little girl extra to "Make some water." He meant get her dress damp because she'd just been pulled from the swamp. Her mother was horrified, thinking he'd asked her to tinkle—and slapped his face."

"I wasn't pretty enough to be used for cutesy parts. At my very best, I was attractive. I was not a face, so I never got into that rut. I was also constantly dieting to get rid of my baby fat. I was having a hard time with that and think I probably had a mild case of bulimia. I became a foodaholic. I loved rhubarb pies. There used to be this little place on that made wonderful rhubarb pies. I'd buy one, drive my car onto a side road, eat the whole thing, and then spit it back into the box. I'd buy whole containers of ice cream and spit it into the disposal. It was disgusting!"

"Well, rushed over to apologize to me once when Barrymore cut loose with a barrage of foul language, but I didn't even know he was swearing. The way I was raised, I didn't even hear a four-letter word until I was eighteen. I mean that. Here's another example: I was autographing photos of me for fans once and my mother looked over my shoulder with a stricken look on her face and said, "What are you writing?" So I told her: "Good luck, always, Anne Baxter." Then she told me, "Your 'L' looks just like an 'F,' and that's a very dirty word!" But the truth is I'd never heard that word before and hadn't a clue what it meant."

"Acting is not what I do. It's what I am. It's my permanent, built-in cathedral."

"Being a wife-mother and doing a job, it's the toughest damn thing in the world. But we want it."

"Darryl Zanuck thought all women were either broads or librarians. He thought I was a librarian. He thought I was smart."

"I loved making films. There was something about that lens that I adored, and it adored me back. So we were a great combination."

"When you say ambition to me, that's when you get me started! My greatest ambition is to be the whoppingest best actress in Hollywood. You can't blame a girl for trying! I don't want to be classed as a "personality," something to stare at. I want to have my talents respected, not only by the public but by myself."

"I remember Yvonne with very warm and positive feelings. There was a warmth and sexiness which came out in everything she did, and that is what was irresistible to audiences. Like most top actresses, she needed direction and support, but her objective was always to be equal to the stars around her, especially the males."

"Oh, how I loved the movies as a little girl. Particularly I loved Yvonne De Carlo—she was my favorite. Others, too, like Rita Hayworth, but I used to dream that I was Yvonne De Carlo. And I liked that little one—what was her name?—June Allyson, too. But for me there was only one Yvonne De Carlo."

"I cast Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, the wife of Moses, after our casting director, Bert McKay called my attention to one scene she played in Sombrero, which was a picture far removed in theme from The Ten Commandments, I sensed in her a depth, an emotional power, a womanly strength which the part of Sephora needed, and which she gave it."

"It's fitting that Yvonne ends up as a star on the very lot where she started as an extra. Audiences will now see her as the really fine actress she is."

"Early one morning she answered the telephone. . . . "Yvonne?" asked the voice on the other end of the phone. It was her agent. "You know about Ten Commandments, don’t you?" "Know what?" she asked. Of course, she knew about the picture. Everyone in town did. "What about it?" she asked. "Great news," the voice sounded breathless. "The part of Sephora—Moses' wife. Until today, that part was wide open. Not any more. Guess who’s got it? You! DeMille wants De Carlo!" Not until weeks later, in conversations with Mr. DeMille, did Yvonne find out how, without asking, she had won this important role. DeMille was in the process of casting and was considering Nina Foch for the role of Moses' Egyptian foster mother. Miss Foch's agent suggested that he see an earlier Foch movie called Sombrero. A date was set and DeMille, with a few of his staff, was shown the film in the studio screening room. Foch was fine, he commented to an assistant. "Cast her." And he started to rise to return to his office. Suddenly, looking up he saw a tormented, sadly beautiful face, veiled in a Mexican shawl, flash upon the screen. Sinking back into his chair, he watched the scene through. When it was over, he had reached another decision. "Get me that face," he ordered. "That’s Sephora.""

"Miss De Carlo photographs beautifully in color and in black and white film. She is a fine actress, an excellent dancer and singer. It is very unusual to find so much talent in one person."

"I enjoyed the comedies with Alec Guinness, and I had a real great time with Peter Ustinov in Hotel Sahara. I found I had the ability to do comedy. My timing was really inborn."