Top 60 Anne Murray Quotes

Our television set was in the bedroom. I can picture my mother fast asleep, exhausted from driving my brothers around. I can picture the Maple Leafs playing the Canadiens. One or the other would always be on the CBC on Saturday night.

Most artists over 40 or 50 don’t get played on the radio. It’s a young people’s game. I was ready for that.

The first time I remember going to Nashville was in 1971 back when ‘Snowbird’ was a hit and I performed at the Grand Ole Opry.

I want to build a house in Indian Harbour, that’s all.

That’s the God’s truth – I’ve forgotten that I was famous. I guess it’s laughable.

I hated L.A., so spread out, so phony. It’s like Vegas. It isn’t real.

Canadian tours are big and difficult, because of the large spaces between cities.

I just love when I’m playing Northumberland and I’m on the back nine and I see the water and the link bridge.

There’s no formula for choosing songs. I’ve beeen lucky over the years. You just hear it and you do it.

When you play in smaller places with a smaller symphony, sometimes there’s a difference in quality. Sometimes it’s murderous. Sometimes it’s real torture. Other times, you get a wonderful surprise. But there’s never a dull moment.

My kids suffered because I wasn’t home enough.

When I was a kid, it was just a wild dream to think that I would’ve had a career like this, and I really didn’t think that was possible. But things just kind of started to roll, and I was caught up in it, and I went with it.

I am a rabid Maple Leaf fan.

You have to understand that I never thought I would have a career in music. That kind of thing didn’t happen. Not for women, not in Canada, not in the 1960s. It was something I did for fun.

I knew it was time to pack it in. I was in my 60s… I could still sing but I didn’t want to get to that point where people feel sorry for me.

There was a time when I never would have considered, ever, doing television commercials for records. I would never do that. That was something that you did for K-Mart.

I had to sing. I couldn’t not sing. If it was singing to a living room full of people or an auditorium, it didn’t matter. I had to sing. I was meant to sing.

You know what I find truly amazing? I haven’t had a hit record since the mid-’80s, and still people show up to pack up the places I’m playing.

When I sing a pop song, I’m a pop singer. When I sing a country song, I’m a country singer. I’ve been very lucky to cross over, because by doing that, you can’t be pigeonholed.

People are going to a place like Pugwash and that whole area to escape from industry, to have the serenity of the surroundings and the beauty.

I’ve been playing Sunrise for years. I love it there. It’s so loosey-goosey. I was up at the Kravis Center and it was, like, ‘Oh my God!’ All the minkdraggers, you know?

I’m a little more interested in smelling the roses, playing more golf and tennis and more cross-country skiiing and doing stuff with my kids.

Late in my career, I was asked to do an inspirational record and a duets album and I didn’t want to do either.

I remember when I was doing my first Christmas album, I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to find new Christmas songs?’ Then I went, ‘Are you crazy?’ When I decorate my tree I don’t want new Christmas songs, I want to hear all the familiar songs!

Turbines are a curiosity, but only once.

TV ads let people know you’re still around. Not only do they sell albums, they give you a high profile. They let people know you’re out there and working.

I didn’t have a life. Basically, for 40 years it was my work and my nose was to the grindstone the whole time.

‘That’s Not The Way It’s Supposed To Be’ was a good video, but it didn’t do anything.

I was a real work-horse.

I have been told that my voice is very suited to oldies albums.

I’m the type of personality who just can’t settle for less.

Growing up, I heard nothing but the best music.

I devoured everything on the radio, I felt like I knew music.

We didn’t have the Grand Ole Opry or country radio stations in Nova Scotia when I was growing up.

I’ve always had a quiet career.

It’s a great time to do a show, at Christmas time. People are by and large in a Christmas frame of mind.

People who buy my records don’t go into music stores – music stores which are fading before our very eyes.

I’m called Anne because my mother, who was devout, prayed to St. Anne every day of her pregnancy with me.

Baseball was popular in the summer, but hockey was big most of the time. With five brothers, you never escaped it. We had an indoor rink in our town, and all the boys would play on it right through high school.

That worried me early on in my career – that I would change. If I went to New York or Los Angeles that I would become somebody I wouldn’t like. That person that gets a big head and starts thinking they’re more special than anyone else. I never wanted to be that person.

None of the boys from my town made it in the N.H.L.

My parents were into The Mills Brothers, Perry Como, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Sarah Vaughn, and all those people sung the most wonderful songs – and even when I got into rock ‘n’ roll, that stayed with me.

I’ve never found it any tougher being a woman than a man, but I’ve always been the boss.

As far as k. d. lang is concerned, she grew up devouring my music. She sent me a song when she was 8 years old, and she says I never wrote back.

When my son was in his teens, he was a really fine drummer. He was asked in an interview if he would consider going into the business. And he said, ‘Why would I ever go into the business that took my mother from me?’

I used to sing all the time. But I couldn’t imagine getting paid for it.

It’s hard for performers to grow old gracefully, but I’m trying.

I don’t want to look out and perform in front of people who are drunk. I did that when I was playing little clubs.

A good singer can sing anything.

A lot of people want to put you in a slot. They want to categorize you. So I fought that, because I liked all different kinds of music.

I wanted Rosemary Clooney to like ‘Hey There.’

When I was growing up everybody I knew could sing. I had no choice. I had to sing.

With my kids I just missed so many things, and that’s a regret I have.

Nobody can have a career that lasts forever on radio.

I don’t sing songs on albums that I don’t like.

I do duets with folks like Randy Goodman, Aaron Neville, Bryan Adams, people like that.

I was a real rock ‘n’ roll fan.

If I can still sing and still perform to my satisfaction, I don’t mind touring.

But I’m a real Gemini; I’m completely different at home than when I’m on tour.

There’s nothing I hate more than having to cancel shows. In 36 years of performing, I think I’ve only canceled six times.