Jessye Norman Quotes
I love singing jazz. I don't like the idea that classical music should be over here and jazz should be someplace else. It's all wonderful, and we should be open to enjoying it all.
Quotes to Explore
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The more I go on in this career of making albums, writing songs and playing music, the more I think of each album as a movie. I really wanted to make a film, but making a film is much more expensive than making a record.
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When I'm on stage, I know exactly where I am. It's not an ego thing or anything like that, but I am more in my body and aware of myself and aware of what I'm doing, and I feel more from that, from sharing the music.
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As much as I don't want to admit it, my fans are the only ones that can hurt my feelings when they're not pleased with what I'm presenting. I want it to be perfect for them. I want them to have a different sense of pride in my music.
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I listen to crazy, robust rock music where they sing their faces off, and soul music, which can be similar.
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I really believed that my songs were good enough for the whole world to listen to. I had fans from America or the U.K. who would be like, 'Oh my God, I love your music'.
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I want to be in control of how my music is released and how I create it. What people don't talk about when they talk about major labels is how many artists get dropped or funding gets dropped when they don't recoup quick enough.
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Does art have a future? Performance genres like opera, theater, music and dance are thriving all over the world, but the visual arts have been in slow decline for nearly 40 years. No major figure of profound influence has emerged in painting or sculpture since the waning of Pop Art and the birth of Minimalism in the early 1970s.
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I think music docs could turn off some people.
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My scientific work is much more practically minded - to change something, to effect something. And the music I do is much more soft power, about changing minds.
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My parents were quite strict; we couldn't just listen to whatever music we wanted. It was very much like they monitored what we listened to.
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I've had so many hot, cheesy, corny loves of music in my life. I had a very intense Billy Joel period. So once you've really Joeled it up - there's some good periods of Joel; it's not all hot cheese. But I can't judge anyone else for their cheese. I've deep-sea dived in the Gouda.
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A composition is always more than the sum of its parts. In other words, a really good piece of music is more than itself. It's sort of like a prism, which you can see from each facet a single totality.
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I'll be making music 'til the day I die. I've done all kinds of stuff, and more is coming.
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No one told me I had to make something that would sell, but I personally want everyone to like my music.
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Mastering music is more than learning technical skills. Practicing is about quality, not quantity. Some days I practice for hours; other days it will be just a few minutes.
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When you're singing you can hear the echo of people in the audience singing every single word with you, and that was that big dream that I had for myself. It's happening.
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My mother was American, and my father was from the Caribbean, and there was a big open door into the world of humanity and music.
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Latinos finally have a genre of music that represents them, and they're supporting reggaeton in such huge numbers that people can't help but notice there's a revolution going on.
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Having a simple career as a musician who liked music was good enough for me.
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I listen to so much music every day, so that's such a big part of my life. To be able to pursue that and put out my own stuff is definitely a goal. I don't want to put something out that I'm not proud of because I think it's so easy to say, 'I'm an actress/musician.'
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Acting has always been a passion of mine, so any opportunity that allows me to do that is definitely of interest to me.
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I just think it's shocking how many of these young people wind up in prison and they get turned into hardcore criminals because they had a possession of a very small amount of controlled substance.
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I'm a born collaborator. This is what I was born to do, really.
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I love singing jazz. I don't like the idea that classical music should be over here and jazz should be someplace else. It's all wonderful, and we should be open to enjoying it all.
