Inspiring Quotes From Female Musicians

We all have someone to look up to; these can be people who are part of our daily lives, or someone we've met briefly but left a lasting impression. They can also be someone famous like a celebrated musician, composer or vocalist. Let's read and learn from these inspiring quotes by some of the world's legendary female musicians.

Nadia Boulanger

"A great work of art is made out of a combination of obedience and liberty.”

Tracy Chapman

"Songwriting is a very mysterious process. It feels like creating something from nothing. It's something I don't feel like I really control."

Patsy Cline

"You're gonna have to learn to get out there in front of those cameras and hold your head up. Take charge when you're singing."

Doris Day

"Wrinkles are hereditary. Parents get them from their children."

Ella Fitzgerald

"It isn't where you came from, it's where you're going that counts."

Billie Holiday

"You can't copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling. No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music."

Alberta Hunter

"Put your faith in God and confidence in yourself."

Carole King

"The downside of videos is that it will put my vision in front of other people, so they might not get the chance to create their own."

Norah Jones

"I don't try to sound like anyone but me anymore. If something is out of my element, I try to avoid it."

Joni Mitchell

"You could write a song about some kind of emotional problem you are having, but it would not be a good song, in my eyes, until it went through a period of sensitivity to a moment of clarity. Without that moment of clarity to contribute to the song, it's just complaining."

Beverly Sills

"You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try."

Carly Simon

"As a singer I tried on all these hats, these voices, these clothes, and eventually out came me."

Sarah Vaughan

"When I sing, trouble can sit right on my shoulder and I don't even notice."

Joan Baez

"You don't get to choose how you're going to die, or when. You can only decide how you're going to live now."

Lena Home

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

Sarah Caldwell

"Success is important only to the extent that it puts one in a position to do more things one likes to do."

Maria Callas

"When music fails to agree to the ear, to soothe the ear and the heart and the senses, then it has missed its point."

Marian Anderson

"As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might."

Julie Andrews

"Sometimes opportunities float right past your nose. Work hard, apply yourself, and be ready. When an opportunity comes you can grab it."

Pearl Bailey

"No one can figure out your worth but you."

Aretha Franklin

"If a song's about something I've experienced or that could've happened to me it's good. But if it's alien to me, I couldn't lend anything to it. Because that's what soul is all about."

Judy Garland

"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else."

Loretta Lynn

"In the long run, you make your own luck - good, bad, or indifferent."