Quotes about singing
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“On the subject of dedication to a craft in addition talent, I was and especially the singing, were so original, so powerful, and so accomplished, that the tragedy of his loss, after making only the one record (though a flood of demos and live recordings was released in his wake), seemed ever more poignant. It was clear to me that Jeff Buckley had been one of the few Great Ones, a one-in-a-billion talent, a true voice of his generation, and at thirty, he had hardly begun. Whatever is left behind in the passing of a rare talent, so much is always lost.”

Jeff Buckley (1966–1997) American singer, guitarist and songwriter

Neil Peart drummer from Rush from the book, Traveling Music: Play Back the Soundtrack to My Life and Times.

Making love, Loss

“It may be, then, that form serves us best when it works as an obstruction to baffle us and deflect our intended course. It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work and that when we no longer know which way to go we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

Standing by Words: Essays (2011), Poetry and Marriage: The Use of Old Forms (1982)

Way

“Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot run away; and if they could, they would still be destroyed — chased and hunted down as long as fun or a dollar could be got out of their bark hides, branching horns, or magnificent bole backbones. Few that fell trees plant them; nor would planting avail much towards getting back anything like the noble primeval forests. … It took more than three thousand years to make some of the trees in these Western woods — trees that are still standing in perfect strength and beauty, waving and singing in the mighty forests of the Sierra. Through all the wonderful, eventful centuries … God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand straining, leveling tempests and floods; but he cannot save them from fools — only Uncle Sam can do that.”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

Source: 1900s, Our National Parks (1901), chapter 10: The American Forests

God, Making love, Disease, Beauty

“My Soul gave me good counsel, teaching me that the lamp which I carry does not belong to me, and the song that I sing was not generated from within me. Even if I walk with light, I am not the light; and if I am a taut-stringed lute, I am not the lute player.”

Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer

The Vision: Reflections on the Way of the Soul (1994)

Soul, Light

“On a tree by a river a little tomtit
Sang "Willow, titwillow, titwillow"
And I said to him, "Dicky-bird, why do you sit
Singing ‘Willow, titwillow, titwillow?'.
"Is it weakness of intellect, birdie?" I cried,
"Or a rather tough worm in your little inside?"”

W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) English librettist of the Gilbert & Sullivan duo

With a shake of his poor little head he replied,
"Oh, Willow, titwillow, titwillow!"
The Suicide's Grave (from The Mikado).
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Bird, Tree

“The condition of mankind is, and always has been, so miserable and depraved that, if anyone were to say to the poet: "For God's sake stop singing and do something useful like putting on the kettle or fetching bandages," what just reason could he give for refusing? But nobody says this. The self-appointed unqualified nurse says: "You are to sing the patient a song which will make him believe that I, and I alone, can cure him. If you can't or won't, I shall confiscate your passport and send you to the mines."”

W. H. Auden book The Dyer's Hand

And the poor patient in his delirium cries: "Please sing me a song which will give me sweet dreams instead of nightmares. If you succeed, I will give you a penthouse in New York or a ranch in Arizona."
"Writing", p. 27
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)

God, Making love, Self-confidence

“I still have the passion in my heart. If I don’t sing, my heart doesn’t beat so strong...”

Julio Iglesias (1943) Spanish recording artist; singer-songwriter

On singing in "Julio Iglesias says 50-year singing career is 'a miracle'" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-people-julio-iglesias/julio-iglesias-says-50-year-singing-career-is-a-miracle-idUSKCN1T60WU in Reuters (2019 Jun 5)

Strong, Passion, Heart

“Someone in the back of the room started singing "God Bless America."”

David Sedaris (1956) American author

The thing about "God Bless America" is that, after a certain point, nobody really knows the words. There's always a weird mumbling that follows "Stand beside her and guide her," and lasts until "From the mountains to the prairies."

12.09.2001 - p.455
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)

God

“This age proclaims the sovereignty of the citizen, and the inviolability of life; it crowns the people, and consecrates man. In art, it possesses all varieties of genius,—writers, orators, poets, historians, publicists, philosophers, painters, sculptors, musicians; majesty, grace, power, force, splendour, colour, form, style; it renews its strength in the real and in the ideal, and bears in its hand the two thunderbolts, the true and the beautiful. In science it accomplishes unheard-of miracles; it makes of cotton salt petre, of steam a horse, of the voltaic battery a workman, of the electric fluid a messenger, of the sun a painter; it waters itself with subterranean streams, pending the time when it shall warm itself with the central fire; it opens upon the two infinites those two windows, the telescope upon the infinitely great, the microscope upon the infinitely little, and it finds stars in the first abyss, and insects in the second, which prove to it the existence of God... It annihilates time, it annihilates space, it annihilates suffering; it writes a letter from Paris to London, and has an answer in ten minutes; it cuts off a man's leg, the man sings and smiles.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

Conclusion, Part Second, II
Napoleon the Little (1852)

Life, God, People, Age

“I grow old … I grow old ...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me.
I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.”

T.S. Eliot The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)

Girl, Thinking, Water, Parting

“If I was a junkman selling you cars,
Washing your windows and shining your stars,
Thinking your mind was my own in a dream
What would you wonder and how would it seem?
Living in castles a bit at a time
The King started laughing and talking in rhyme.
Singing words, words between the lines of age.
Words, words between the lines of age.”

Neil Young (1945) Canadian singer-songwriter

Words (between the lines of age)
Song lyrics, Harvest (1972)

Age, Dreams, Cars, Star

“We can do the innuendo,
We can dance and sing
And when it's said and done
We haven't told you a thing,
We all know that crap is king, give us dirty laundry.”

Don Henley (1947) American singer, lyricist, producer and drummer

"Dirty Laundry"
Song lyrics, I Can't Stand Still, 1982

Dance

“I grew up in the age of Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Nancy Wilson … It was a time where a fat, ugly broad that could sing had value. Now everything is about image. It’s not poetry. This just isn’t my time.”

Bill Withers (1938–2020) American singer-songwriter and musician

Rollingstone interview (2015)

Age, Time

“We haven't accepted — we can't really believe — that the most characteristic product of our age of scientific miracles is junk, but that is so. And we still think and behave as though we face an unspoiled continent, with thousands of acres of living space for every man. We still sing "America the Beautiful" as though we had not created in it, by strenuous effort, at great expense, and with dauntless self-praise, an unprecedented ugliness.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

"The Rise"
The Long-Legged House (1969)

Age, Beauty, Thinking, Effort

“It's still unclear whether that takes place (that 2019-nCoV can spread before people show sings of being infected). But if it does, that might explain why the disease is spreading so quickly.”

Malik Peiris (1949) Sri Lankan scientist

Malik Peiris (2020) cited in " Number of Coronavirus Cases Passes SARS Outbreak https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/number-of-coronavirus-cases-passes-sars-outbreak/5265482.html" on Learning English, 29 January 2020.

People, Disease

“I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.”

Langston Hughes (1902–1967) American writer and social activist

"I, Too", in the magazine Survey Graphic (March 1925); reprinted in Selected Poems (1959); it is also often referred to as "I, Too, Sing America"

Strong

“Oh, for fuck sake stop lighting off fireworks and shouting & screaming I'm trying to sing a song! I mean I don't care. If you don't want to hear it. You know fuck you. I'm sure there are a lot of people here who do want to hear it. So why don't you just be quiet. If you want to light your fireworks off go outside and light them off out there and if you want to shout and scream well then go and do it out there.... but. I am trying to sing a song that some people want to listen to. I want to listen to it.”

Roger Waters (1943) English songwriter, bassist, and lyricist of Pink Floyd

During a concert for the "Animals" tour in Montreal, Quebec, 1977 [can be heard on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b2J9Qevo1E] Miscellaneous

People, Light

“They were singing, obviously they were having a good time.”

Zach Braff (1975) American actor, director, screenwriter, producer

Time

“He is older than the seas,
Older than the plains and hills,
And older than the light that spills
From the sun's hot wheel on these.
He wakes the gale that tears your trees,
He sings to you from window sills.”

Robert Graves (1895–1985) English poet and novelist

"The God Called Poetry"
Country Sentiment (1920)

Tear, Tree, Light, Sun

“Women are afraid to sing salsa…I don't know why; maybe they think it's for men. I am not a composer, or a soneo, a singer and a poet, which is very difficult. But I think everybody can sing everything.”

Celia Cruz (1925–2003) Cuban singer (1925-2003)

On the gender stereotypes surrounding salsa singers in “CELIA CRUZ: AT THE TOP OF SALSA” https://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/19/arts/celia-cruz-at-the-top-of-salsa.html in New York Times (1985 Nov 19).

Women, Men, Thinking

“When people hear me sing…I want them to be happy, happy, happy. I don't want them thinking about when there's not any money, or when there's fighting at home. My message is always felicidad - happiness.”

Celia Cruz (1925–2003) Cuban singer (1925-2003)

On what she hopes for her audience in “CELIA CRUZ: AT THE TOP OF SALSA” https://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/19/arts/celia-cruz-at-the-top-of-salsa.html in New York Times (1985 Nov 19).

Money, Happiness, People, Home

“I never talk about age, but I was born singing. My mother, Catalina, told me that at 9 or 10 months of age I’d wake up in the middle of the night, 2 or 3 in the morning, singing "esta muchachita va a trabajar de noche."”

Celia Cruz (1925–2003) Cuban singer (1925-2003)

Pues la viejita no se equivocó. On her first time singing, part of her Interview with Generación Ñ http://generation-ntv.com/writing/celia-cruz-1996 in 1996. A similar statement in shown in the BBC Arena documentary "My Name Is Celia Cruz" https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qmxcl from 1988.

Age, Night

“Godself sings one song
moment by moment
with infinite variations”

Alex Grey (1953) American artist

uni : one
verse : poem or song
Art Psalms (2008), Universe

“I feel if I were to organize it correctly I would try to sing like a Mexican and think like a German. You know what I mean? I get it mixed up.”

Linda Ronstadt (1946) American pop singer

Source: On her mixed heritage in a 1978 interview (as quoted in “Linda Ronstadt on New Live Album, Life With Parkinson’s and Modern Country Music” https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/linda-ronstadt-interview-live-album-parkinsons-791219/ in Rolling Stone; 2019 Feb 7)

Feeling, Thinking

“I can sing in my brain…I sing in my brain all the time. It’s not quite the same as doing it physically. There’s a physical feeling in singing that’s just like skiing down a hill. Except better, because I’m not a very good skier.”

Linda Ronstadt (1946) American pop singer

On how she still sings in her head since retiring from music due to having Parkinson’s disease in “Linda Ronstadt Talks Illness, ‘Trio’ Album in Candid ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ Interview” https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/linda-ronstadt-cbs-sunday-morning-interview-789524/ in Rolling Stone (2019 Feb 4)

Feeling, Time

“The bugle echoes shrill and sweet,
But not of war it sings to-day.
The road is rhythmic with the feet
⁠Of men-at-arms who come to pray. The roses blossom white and red
⁠On tombs where weary soldiers lie;
Flags wave above the honored dead
⁠And martial music cleaves the sky. Above their wreath-strewn graves we kneel,
⁠They kept the faith and fought the fight.
Through flying lead and crimson steel
⁠They plunged for Freedom and the Righteousness. May we, their grateful children, learn
⁠Their strength, who lie beneath this sod,
Who went through fire and death to earn
⁠At last the accolade of God.In shining rank on rank arrayed
They march, the legions of the Lord;
He is their Captain unafraid,
The Prince of Peace . . . Who brought a sword.”

Joyce Kilmer Trees and Other Poems

"Memorial Day"; this poem was later published in The Army and Navy Hymnal (1920)
Trees and Other Poems (1914)

Death, Men, War, Children

“The time I enjoy music most is when it’s not a performance. It’s just trading instrumentals and finding that part in the song that you feel best singing.”

Carly Simon (1943) American singer-songwriter, musician and author

On how much she loves performing music with her family in “Carly Simon on Trolling Trump With ‘You’re So Vain,’ Lost Mick Jagger Duet” https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/carly-simon-on-trolling-trump-with-youre-so-vain-lost-mick-jagger-duet-118291/ in Rolling Stone (29 Nov 2016)

Music, Feeling, Time, Parting

“Morning has broken,
Like the first morning,
Blackbird has spoken
Like the first bird.
Praise for the singing!
Praise for the morning!
Praise for them springing
Fresh from the Word!”

Eleanor Farjeon (1881–1965) English children's writer

Morning Has Broken (1931)

Spring, Bird

“Of true benevolence, its charms divine,
With other motives to call forth its power,
And its grand triumphs, multiplied beyond
All former bounds, in this its golden age,
Humbly I sing, awed by the holy theme;
A theme exalted, though as yet unsung,
In beauty rich, of inspiration full,
And worthy of a nobler harp than that
From which heroic strains sublimely sound.”

Carlos Wilcox (1794–1827) American poet

Remains of the Rev. Carlos Wilcox: with a memoir of his life (1828), p. 99 https://archive.org/details/remainsofrevcarl00wilc/page/100/mode/2up Poetry

Age, Beauty, Motivation

“Dance as though no one's watching
Sing as though no one's listening
Love as though you've never been hurt
Work as though you don't need the money.
Live as though it's heaven on earth”

Albert D'Souza (1945) catholic prelate in India

Love, Money, Making love, Dance

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

Thao Nguyen (1984) American singer-songwriter

As quoted in "The Rumpus Interview with Thao Nguyen" in The Rumpus (5 August 2013) https://therumpus.net/2013/08/the-rumpus-interview-with-thao-nguyen/

Personality

“God is not interested in the freedom of black men or brown men or yellow men. God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race, the creation of a society where every man will respect the dignity and worth of personality. So when we sing We Shall Overcome, we are singing a hymn of faith, a hymn of optimism, a hymn of faith in the future.
I can still sing that song because I have faith in the future. I believe that we, as Negroes, are going to gain our freedom in America because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with the destiny of America.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution (1965)

Men, God, Faith, Optimism

“And sometimes when you're on
You're really fucking on
And your friends they sing along
And they love you
But the lows are so extreme
That the good seems fucking cheap
And it teases you for weeks in its absence”

Jenny Lewis (1976) American actor, singer-songwriter

A Better Son/Daughter
Song lyrics, The Execution of All Things (2003)

Love

Jenny Lewis (1976) American actor, singer-songwriter

A Better Son/Daughter
Song lyrics, The Execution of All Things (2003)

Love

“We cannot avoid or escape, but we can sing.”

Rima Das (1982) Indian Assamese film maker

As to why the title of the film Bulbul Can Sing has the word sing, and why it matters to the story Women And Hollywood Article - Under the Radar: Rima Das’ “Bulbul Can Sing” Examines the Joy and Pain of Growing Up - 6 November 2018 https://womenandhollywood.com/under-the-radar-rima-das-bulbul-can-sing-examines-the-joy-and-pain-of-growing-up/ - Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20210728172902/https://womenandhollywood.com/under-the-radar-rima-das-bulbul-can-sing-examines-the-joy-and-pain-of-growing-up/ BULBUL CAN SING Director Q&A | TIFF 2018, at 12 Min 48 Sec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ4vt8ASzE8

“Brain/body relationships might depend upon a chorus of individual hormones... which are released together to sing hormonal harmonies to the body.”

Richard Bergland neuroscientist

The Fabric of Mind (1985)

Dependency

“I scribble on oak trees
Pretty please you can sing
my syllables credible
My cordon bleu sonnets
you just wishing they edible”

Example (musician) (1982) English rapper and singer

"So Many Roads" (song) ("So Many Roads" - video on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IbYJoWrOIg (+ Lyrics version of "So Many Roads" on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBUt6gyNgQI Studio albums, What We Made (2007)

Tree

“Life is a song - sing it.”

Sathya Sai Baba (1926–2011) Indian guru

Life

“Come up, with white and crimson!
O, shake your bells and sing;
Let the porch bend, the pillars bow,
Before our Lord, the Spring!”

Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) English poet

The Lord of Misrule
The Lord of Misrule and Other Poems (1915)

Spring

“Those who value music pay for it. When left unmanaged, they can be left astray and lose the right path. As the listening level rises, the music progresses. The musicians of my generation tried to break the rule of singing.”

Reza Tajbakhsh (1981) Musical artist

Music

“For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to be a "Broadway actress." I think I came out of the womb singing and dancing, and performing was the one thing I always had my heart set on.”

Laura Osnes (1985) actress

Source: BWW Interview: Laura Osnes Brings BROADWAY PRINCESS PARTY to the Lied Center For Performing Arts https://www.broadwayworld.com/omaha/article/BWW-Interview-Laura-Osnes-Brings-BROADWAY-PRINCESS-PARTY-to-the-Lied-Center-For-Performing-Arts-20181128 (November 28, 2018)

Thinking, Heart, Dance

“During secondary school days, I started entertaining my friends during lunchtime...I had a sort of request songs and I would sing.”

Niniola (1986) Nigerian singer-songwriter

Source: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/niniola-femi-kuti-958136/amp/ Niniola speaking at an interview about her journey into music.

School

“Take advantage of every opportunity that you get. I was always one to go into any singing competition and taking advantage of offers for any performances. Just get as much experience as you can. Don’t listen when people say "Oh you can’t do that." If you want it keep going for it.”

Victoria Duffield (1995) Canadian actor, singer and dancer

Source: Interview: Canada’s Hottest New Pop Star Victoria Duffield https://www.realstylenetwork.com/celebrities/2012/02/interview-canadas-hottest-new-pop-star-victoria-duffield/ (2012)

People

“When I first started singing the anthem, my thoughts were always to sing it in a way that my father would like it to be sung— not just the sound, but also the intention. If you sing anything with intention, it really is hard to get tired of it.”

Mark Donnelly (1960) Canadian singer

Source: Mark Donnelly: Q&A with the slimming anthem singer https://www.canadianbusiness.com/lifestyle/mark-donnelly-qa-with-the-slimming-anthem-singer/ (March 13, 2012)

Way