Quotes by Jessye Norman - Page 1

I'm dying always.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Dying
Always
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Pigeon-holes are only comfortable for pigeons.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Comfortable
Holes
Pigeons
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I walk an 11-minute mile without huffing and puffing.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Huffing
Miles
Minutes
Mile
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My arias make me take off as if I were on a trampoline.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Aria
Ifs
Trampolines
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I want to keep learning, keep exploring, keep doing more.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Learning
Exploring
Keep Learning
Want
More
Doing
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I am not one to equate dress size and artistic performance.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Size
Equate
Performance
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I am grateful that my horizons were not narrowed at the outset.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Grateful
Horizon
I Am Grateful
I Am Grateful Am
Horizons
Outset
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I have a particular affliction. I am unable to say a word I can't spell.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Affliction
Particular
Spells
Spell
Unable
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I am the proud and humble recipient of more than 30 honorary doctorate degrees.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Degrees
Honorary
Doctorate
Recipient
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A person has the right, and I think the responsibility, to develop all of their talents.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Responsibility
Talent
Thinking
Talents
Develop
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It takes a caring community to raise a child that will be a whole person and a contributing citizen.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Caring
Community
Contributing
Whole
Person
Child
Citizen
Raise
Takes
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I like so many different kinds of music that I've never allowed myself the limitations of one particular range.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Different
Different Kinds
Kind
Range
Music Myself Never
Limitations
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One needs more than ambition and talent to make a success of anything, really. There must be love and a vocation.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Ambition
Needs
Talent
Vocation
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Problems arise in that one has to find a balance between what people need from you and what you need for yourself.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Arise
Balance
People
Relaxation
Between
Find
Problems
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It is still more likely that a woman's power would be seen as aggression, and a man's power would be seen as assertion.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Men
Aggression
Assertion
Would Be
Power Man Woman
Likely
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There has never been a time when I was not committed to, involved in, or caring of, the social and political issues of my world.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Caring
Committed
Involved
Issues
Political
Political Issues
Social
Time Political World
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I want to sing more in Spanish. I want to sing the songs of Granados; the songs of Montsalvatge. To do things that truly I've not done before.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Done
Song
Want
Done More Things
Spanish
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If I were not able to separate the art from the artists, I think I would limit myself a great deal, and life wouldn't be nearly as interesting.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Great
Able
Interesting
Life Art Great
Life Art Myself
Artists
Nearly
Were
Deal
Great Deal
Would
Limit
Separate
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I was given a stethoscope in a child's 'doctor's bag' at about age six and I loved it! One could hear the heart beating through that plastic toy.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Love
Children
Heart
Plastic
Six
Bag
Beating
Doctor
Toy
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There's no anger ever in a spiritual. There's always the dream of a hope of a better day coming. That God understands the troubles that I'm experiencing.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Anger
Dream
Better Days
Spiritual
Coming
Experiencing
Troubles
Understands
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Swan, by Mary Oliver. Poems and prose. Reading from this book is as if visiting a very wise friend. There is wisdom and welcoming kindness on every page.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Kindness
Wise
Book
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As for my voice, it cannot be categorised - and I like it that way, because I sing things that would be considered in the dramatic, mezzo or spinto range.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Dramatic
Range
Considered
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'Swan,' by Mary Oliver. Poems and prose. Reading from this book is as if visiting a very wise friend. There is wisdom and welcoming kindness on every page.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Wisdom
Wise
Book
Mary
Prose
Reading
Visiting
Friend
Oliver
Page
Swan
Welcoming
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I enjoy reading about the lives of musicians, and find many similarities in their ideas of preparation and their utter devotion to this great, eternal language: music.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Devotion
Eternal
Preparation
Reading
Utter
Enjoy Reading
Musicians
Similarities
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We singers have a different level of responsibility from other musicians. We have words that we must convey; we have meanings that we must convey through these lyrics.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Responsibility
Singers
Convey
Different Level
Meanings
Musicians
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My parents said to us, practically on a daily basis, that we were as good as anyone else on this earth, and that we would simply have to work harder in order to show that.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Harder
Anyone Else
Basis
Daily
Daily Basis
Simply
Practically
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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.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Classical Music
Jazz
Love Music Singing
Love Music Jazz
Classical
Enjoying
Someplace
Someplace Else
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I feel comfortable singing in the great cathedrals of the world because I spent so much time as a child singing in church. And it isn't very different. Of course, nothing looks quite like Notre Dame de Paris.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Cathedrals
Notre Dame
Time Great World
Dame
So Much Time
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I think that it is expansive for the mind, for the fantasy of children and grownups alike, to understand that the world is huge. There is so much in the world to experience, and the odds are so essential to life.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Fantasy
Grownups
Odds
Life Experience World
Alike
Essential
Expansive
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I have enjoyed most particularly reading the correspondence between Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss. The genuine friendship, competitiveness and support that thread through their communications are life lessons for us all.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Friendship
Communication
Competitiveness
Correspondence
Enjoyed
Genuine
Lessons
Life Lesson
Mahler
Reading
Thread
Communications
Richard
Life Lessons
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If you send up a weather vane or put your thumb up in the air every time you want to do something different, to find out what people are going to think about it, you're going to limit yourself. That's a very strange way to live.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Air
Different
Strange
Thinking
Thumbs Up
Weather
Time Yourself People
Find
Every Time
Limit
Put
Send
Strange Way
Thumb
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I didn't think at all as a young child that music would be my profession. It was just something that one did along with going to Brownies or going to church or going to school or anything else that one did in sort of one's very young life.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Profession
Anything Else
Just Something
Young Child
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I would like to see more African-American singers as part of our opera companies. If you take music and the arts out of the public schools, then you're going to lose a lot of people that you might have discovered were talented, very early.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
African American
Opera
Singers
Arts
Companies
Talented
Discovered
Public Schools
Schools
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The very best thing that could happen to a voice, if it shows any promise at all, is when it is very young to leave it alone and to let it develop quite naturally, and to let the person go on as long as possible with the sheer joy of singing.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Joy
Long
Voice
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One has to draw upon one's own musical thoughts and one's own musical acumen, and not to be afraid to let that come into one's work. Perhaps that comes with more experience, but perhaps it also comes with daring, and believing that you should.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Acumen
Daring
Believing
Draw
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I am deeply spiritual; I revel in those things that make for good - the things that we can do to shed a little light, to help place an oft-dissonant universe back in tune with itself... Long live art, long live friendship, long live the joy of life!
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Art
Friendship
Joy
Light
Long
Shed
Spiritual
Universe
Little
Life Art Good
Back
Itself
Deeply
Help
Place
Tune
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I think that, certainly, most of my operatic roles are in German. I think it happened because, of course, I was lucky in that I was invited to sing, first of all, my operatic debut in Berlin at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, which was West Berlin at the time.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Berlin
Debut
Invited
German
Time First Think
Certainly
First Of All
Sing
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One of the reasons that I take such joy in being a trustee of the New York Public Library is the love of reading that I found as a child in the Saturday morning library events for preschoolers and first and second graders as I was growing up in Augusta, GA.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Public Library
Saturday
Saturday Morning
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I sing in languages that I speak. So when I'm singing a Schubert song, I know precisely what every word means and, you know, when it was composed and who was the poet and all of that and whether Strauss or Wagner or French Belioz, Duparc or Debussy or whatever.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Debussy
Schubert
Wagner
Languages
Composed
Precisely
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As for my voice, it cannot be categorized-and I like it that way, because I sing things that would be considered in the dramatic, mezzo or spinto range. I like so many different kinds of music that I've never allowed myself the limitations of one particular range.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Different
Voice
Would Be
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I knew that I was loved. And that's such an important thing. And, of course, at such an early age, you take it for granted. Of course your parents love you. Of course Mrs. Hubert across the street loves you and your godmother loves you and your grandparents love you.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Godmother
Granted
Early Age
Loves
Important Thing
Mrs
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Growing up in Augusta in such a protected and loving community is something that I really enjoy talking about. I love talking about - even though I grew up, of course, in the time of segregated schools: Brown vs. Board of Education came along after I was already in first grade.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Brown
Protected
Board
Love Education Time
First Grade
Grade
Segregated
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I try to frighten my very young colleagues into studying and understanding their voices before they attempt things that are beyond them. It's wise to take gymnastics and swimming to strengthen the body, because people don't realise what an athletic undertaking singing actually is.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Wise
Colleagues
Gymnastics
Swimming
Attempt
Frighten
Realise
Strengthen
Studying
Undertaking
Voices
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There have been occasions - and I think it's very good for any human being that such occasions would be rare - that one would feel that one is a channel, and there have been some occasions when it seemed as though I was standing outside of myself watching and listening to myself sing.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Standing
Good Myself Feel
Rare
Channel
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I sing in Hungarian. I read Hungarian. I do not pretend to speak Hungarian, but I sing in languages that I have studied as languages. And I find that to be central and very, very helpful. I think if you're not really cognizant of what every single word means, I think that might be a little tricky.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Cognizant
Helpful
Single Word
Tricky
Studied
Central
Languages
Pretend
Hungarian
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There is a lot of propaganda about opera singers not being able to act. That's not necessarily true and hasn't been true for a very long time. And certainly there were those instances when singers were told they need to fit into a certain size dress. Of course, women. Men? They just make the costume bigger.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Opera
Propaganda
Singers
Size
Time Men Women
Costume
Time Women Men
Very Long Time
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I read everything. I'll read a John Grisham novel, I'll sit and read a whole book of poems by Maya Angelou, or I'll just read some Mary Oliver - this is a book that was given to me for Christmas. No particular genre. And I read in French, and I read in German, and I read in English. I love to see how other people use language.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Christmas
Angelou
Genre
Mary
Love Christmas Me
German
John Grisham
Oliver
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I wasn't born Austrian; I wasn't born German. My roots are from Africa, and I do not have any reason for not wanting to celebrate that. Every time that I can, I like to kind of mention it, you know, just to keep people sort of knowing exactly what's going on. My French is pretty good, but I'm still African, thank you very much.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
Thank You
Born
Celebrate
Roots
Time Good People
Africa
African
German
French
Every Time
Exactly
Mention
Pretty Good
Thank
Wanting
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I was given the opportunity to write the kind of book that I wanted to write, rather than one that catalogues where I sang and what I sang and what I wore. I wanted to write a book about an American family, the family that has produced me. The longer I live, the more I realise the incredible support and love we were given as children.
Jessye Norman / Opera Singer
American Family
Sang
Produced
Realise
Wore
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Jessye Norman Quotes - Page 1

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