Jessye Norman Quotes

We finally sat down and asked ourselves how much of our lives we wanted to give everybody. We had just given a little too much, and it started to become a burden.

I've always tried to balance my life with what is good for me but also keeping in mind how it affects somebody else.

I'm always battling how to be in a relationship while simultaneously maintaining my independence and my career.

Every relation forms its own defined and non-defined rules.

If anything gets in the way of me being a good mom or wife, I simply say no.

I used to think that love was giving up everything of yourself and giving it to the other person. Now, I've realized that love is when you have somebody that doesn't make you give up half of yourself.

It's very hard to balance being there for somebody else and taking care of yourself.

I used to tell moms that for the sake of their well-being they had to put themselves first. But I know now that's not always possible.

Boyfriends have to understand me and my needs. They have to know what I want out of my life and about my strict regime. I go to bed at 10pm and not later. I separate my professional and private lives.

Relationships are a constant negotiation and balance.

Working hard is a great way to impact the world, to learn, to grow, to feel accomplished, and sometimes even to find happiness, but it becomes a problem when you do so at the expense of the people closest to you.

As women, we're nurturers by nature. We want to make sure everyone is happy. That's a good thing, but we also have to put ourselves on that happiness list.

Yeah, I'm a giver. I've learned to be selective of the people in my world, because if I love someone, I will give them my blood, whatever they need. In doing so, one can end up with little left for themselves.

I mean, I would never want to do anything to hurt my family, but then again I would never want to do anything to hurt myself. And I think they go hand in hand.

Communication is a continual balancing act, juggling the conflicting needs for intimacy and independence. To survive in the world, we have to act in concert with others, but to survive as ourselves, rather than simply as cogs in a wheel, we have to act alone.

I'm not going to be everything to everyone.

A band is like a marriage, and if you're in a marriage with someone, and you lose yourself in that marriage, the relationship is over, really.

I talk to my friends and, you know, they all seem to get relationships that aren't right. You kind of want someone who is not at your beck and call but loves the idea of being in a relationship and what that entails.

I'd do almost anything for love, within safe boundaries.

Each time I think I've created time for myself, along comes a throwback to disrupt my private space.

Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.

Two halves don't make a whole. Two wholes make a whole. In my relationship, I was giving myself away to make the relationship better, but in actuality, wasn't doing better by doing that. I became less of a man.

I want to tell women that you need to love yourself and make yourself a priority. It's only when you are happy yourself, can you make everyone else around you happy. I am still a dreamer and still believe in fairy tales, but there is only that much one should give another person. You need to keep something for yourself.

Love is important. I didn't have the energy to be giving it to somebody else in a way that they deserved, and I knew that. So I've always been scared to go too far with somebody I care for because I knew there would come a day when I'd need to pick up and finish a painting for the next three months. That day is inevitable.

I think I've had extremes of being unable to exist outside of my own head, and then I only am existing for other people... There's a middle ground where I should take care of myself and other people.