Top 40 Judy Collins Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “The powerful men in my life have always believed in me: my husband, my son.”

— Judy Collins

2. “Survival, I know, is to begin again.”

— Judy Collins

3. “Irish Alzheimer’s: you forget everything except the grudges.”

— Judy Collins

4. “Experience is how life catches up with us and teaches us to love and forgive each other.”

— Judy Collins

5. “I’ve gone through many, many things. I tell you something, that if it doesn’t kill you, you get stronger.”

— Judy Collins

6. “Do what you love, and you will find the way to get it out to the world.”

— Judy Collins

7. “Music can speak louder than words, and I will use my music to speak out on behalf of children everywhere.”

— Judy Collins

8. “I think people who are creative are the luckiest people on earth. I know that there are no shortcuts, but you must keep your faith in something Greater than You, and keep doing what you love. Do what you love, and you will find the way to get it out to the world.”

— Judy Collins

9. “I may like the Blizzard best, of all the songs I have written.”

— Judy Collins

10. “Writing anything is terribly hard but, alas for me, because I am addicted, a heck of a lot of fun. I often am sorry I ever started writing prose, because it is so hard. But I can’t stop.”

— Judy Collins

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11. “Suffering is the price of being alive, and it is music and singing and art that has helped me live through some of the most difficult things that have happened to me.”

— Judy Collins

12. “I look in the mirror through the eyes of the child that was me.”

— Judy Collins

13. “I think suicide is sort of like cancer was 50 years ago. People don’t want to talk about it, they don’t want to know about it. People are frightened of it, and they don’t understand, when actually these issues are medically treatable.”

— Judy Collins

14. “There is an old saying that every time you sigh, a drop of blood falls from your heart. It seems I sigh more now than I ever did, and that probably means my heart has lost many tear-shaped drops. I have lived my life, as we all do, between these sighs, between these drops of blood.”

— Judy Collins

15. “I have friends who’ve tried suicide many times and haven’t succeeded. I myself made an attempt, so I had a connection with that sort of group of people who have tried suicide at one time in their lives.”

— Judy Collins

16. “The poetry and the songs that you are suppose to write, I believe are in your heart. You just have to open up your heart and not be afraid to get them out.”

— Judy Collins

17. “It is true that I have had heartache and tragedy in my life. These are things none of us avoids. Suffering is the price of being alive.”

— Judy Collins

18. “Recovering from the suicide of a loved one, you need all the help you can get.”

— Judy Collins

19. “In Judaism, it is taught that there are three stages of grief to be endured. First there is weeping, for we all must weep for what we have lost. Second comes silence, for in the silence we understand solace, beauty, and comfort from something greater than ourselves. Third comes singing, for in singing we pour out our hearts and regain our voice.”

— Judy Collins

20. “I don’t think you get to good writing unless you expose yourself and your feelings. Deep songs don’t come from the surface; they come from the deep down. The poetry and the songs that you are suppose to write, I believe are in your heart.”

— Judy Collins

21. “The rise of the Internet has caused the demise of the record labels, and has destroyed the music business of old, but it’s also created new opportunities for young artists.”

— Judy Collins

22. “Recovering from the suicide of a loved one, you need all the help you can get, so I very much recommend a meditation program. The whole picture of how to recover from this has to do with body, mind, and spirit. That’s applicable to any kind of depression.”

— Judy Collins

23. “I feel so very grateful to have the voice God gave me. It takes a lot of rest and training to sing, and I was lucky that I found a great teacher when I first moved to New York.”

— Judy Collins

24. “Most of what we take as being important is not material, whether it’s music or feelings or love. They’re things we can’t really see or touch. They’re not material, but they’re vitally important to us.”

— Judy Collins

25. “We have to fight off the demons that have been hanging around suicide for centuries.”

— Judy Collins

26. “Humanity is filled with beautiful and positive and powerful people who care. I’m so glad we have people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in the world.”

— Judy Collins

27. “For many centuries, suicides were treated like criminals by the society. That is part of the terrible legacy that has come down into society’s method of handling suicide recovery. Now we have to fight off the demons that have been hanging around suicide for centuries.”

— Judy Collins

28. “Music is always occurring. It is just a matter of marketing, attention, and many other factors, that determines whether people will hear these songs or not.”

— Judy Collins

29. “If I had not been already been meditating, I would certainly have had to start. I’ve treated my own depression for many years with exercise and meditation, and I’ve found that to be a tremendous help.”

— Judy Collins

30. “I am just glad that I can take the music to the people who want to hear it. I love my audiences. I am deeply indebted to them for giving me the chance to sing my concerts, make records, and do what I love. Whatever people call it, it is great to have a voice!”

— Judy Collins

31. “The inner wars, and the outer ones, go on while I pray and struggle; sometimes in the middle of a dark night of the soul I wonder how they became my wars to fight. And then I hear a voice that says, “Why not me?”

— Judy Collins

32. “I don’t think you get to good writing unless you expose yourself and your feelings.”

— Judy Collins

33. “I had some wonderful dreaming meetings. I can’t tell you specifically what they’ve been in the recent months. In the past they’ve been verbal kinds of messages that he needed to give me. Now they’re more dreams of his presence.”

— Judy Collins

34. “I had sold my soul for pleasure.”

— Judy Collins

35. “I have tried, in all the ways I can, to make timeless music.”

— Judy Collins

36. “I was raised to speak out about politics and the world around me. I would do it whether I was in the public or not. It is the way I was taught. The American way.”

— Judy Collins

37. “Rachael Sage is a marvelous young artist- and I am a fan!! ‘Haunted by You’ has a beauty that shines through her lyrics and melodies – poignant, tender and tough. These are stories from the heart that will lift you up and carry you to places you had never dreamed.”

— Judy Collins

38. “Capitalism can be helpful, but it can also be destructive when it’s used by huge enterprises worldwide for the sale of weapons.”

— Judy Collins

39. “I think that new communications are wonderful and I am delighted to be a part of the Internet generation.”

— Judy Collins

40. “I always sang when I was little and my father, who was a great influence on me, also had a wonderful voice. He and my mother really encouraged me to sing and play the piano. They were always very supportive.”

— Judy Collins

41. “When you have a belief, then you make your views known.”

— Judy Collins

42. “I don’t dream songs. I’m more apt to write dreams down and then to be able to interpret them into a song. I also tend to get up and write prose in the morning from which will come songs.”

— Judy Collins

43. “I am thrilled to have been able to put together this new album. I listened to everything I had recorded in the 24 years with Elektra, and then just took all the ones I am mad about.”

— Judy Collins

44. “The opening line from a journal can be the beginning of a song.”

— Judy Collins

45. “I have inspiration and feelings of being alive most every day I live.”

— Judy Collins

46. “There are no accidents in memory, for memory has its own reasons and its own logic. What I remember is what happened to me as I best recall it.”

— Judy Collins

47. “Writing is a voice that calls us from dreams, that peeks out of the corner of our eyes when we think no one is looking, the longing that breaks our hearts even when we think we should be happiest, and to which we cannot give a name.”

— Judy Collins