Jessye Norman Quotes

• Pigeon-holes are only comfortable for pigeons.

  Jessye Norman

  Pigeons, Holes, Comfortable

  Jessye Norman (2014). “Stand Up Straight and Sing!”, p.155, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  50 Copy quote

• Problems arise in that one has to find a balance between what people need from you and what you need for yourself.

  Jessye Norman

  People, Relaxation, Balance

  40 Copy quote

• 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

  Spiritual, Art, Light

  16 Copy quote

• 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

  Voice, Long, Joy

  21 Copy quote

• A person has the right, and I think the responsibility, to develop all of their talents.

  Jessye Norman

  Responsibility, Thinking, Talent

  7 Copy quote

• One needs more than ambition and talent to make a success of anything, really. There must be love and a vocation.

  Jessye Norman

  Ambition, Needs, Talent

  9 Copy quote

• I want to keep learning, keep exploring, keep doing more.

  Jessye Norman

  Want, Keep Learning, Exploring

  5 Copy quote

• My arias make me take off as if I were on a trampoline.

  Jessye Norman

  Trampolines, Aria, Ifs

  16 Copy quote

• 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

  Thinking, Thumbs Up, Air

  12 Copy quote

• 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

  Dream, Spiritual, Better Days

  12 Copy quote

• 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

  Voice, Different, Would Be

  10 Copy quote

• I am grateful that my horizons were not narrowed at the outset.

  Jessye Norman

  Grateful, Horizon, I Am Grateful

  22 Copy quote

• 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

  Men, Would Be, Aggression

  12 Copy quote

• 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

  Caring, Issues, Political

  10 Copy quote

• 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

  Life Lesson, Communication, Reading

  "Jessye Norman: By the Book". www.nytimes.com. June 05, 2014.

  6 Copy quote

• I walk an 11-minute mile without huffing and puffing.

  Jessye Norman

  Huffing, Minutes, Miles

  8 Copy quote

• I like so many different kinds of music that I've never allowed myself the limitations of one particular range.

  Jessye Norman

  Different, Kind, Range

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  Song, Done, Want

  9 Copy quote

• 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

  Wise, Kindness, Book

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  Love, Children, Heart

  70 Copy quote

• I have a particular affliction. I am unable to say a word I can't spell.

  Jessye Norman

  Affliction, Particular, Spells

  8 Copy quote

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