Linda Ronstadt

“Everywhere you go, there's a soundtrack. You can't really quite hear it. It's just a little out of the range of hearing.”

“You have the United States, and you have Mexico, and then you have this Mexican-American thing which is this third culture, which I like to call Aztlan.”

“I used to feel kind of impatient with people who couldn't do things fast or couldn't remember stuff.”

“Parkinson's is very hard to diagnose. So when I finally went to a neurologist, and he said, 'Oh, you have Parkinson's disease,' I was completely shocked.”

“I can remember sitting at the piano. My sister was playing, and my brother was singing something, and I said, 'I want to try that.'”

“People have often written about me, that I did this for this reason and that for that reason, and they're usually 98 percent wrong.”

“The music that I chose during my life, it wasn't arbitrary. It was all in my family home when I was growing up. I never tried to record anything I hadn't heard before the age of 10. Otherwise, I couldn't do it authentically.”

“I can't really walk well. The muscles don't get the electronic signals from my brain, not that there's anything wrong with the muscles themselves. It's just my brain.”

“It's a real conflict for me when I go to a concert and find out somebody in the audience is a Republican or fundamental Christian. It can cloud my enjoyment. I'd rather not know.”

“I'd go over to my grandmother's house, and she'd be playing opera. They loved opera. Not only did they play it on the radio, but they played it on their piano. Everybody learned how to read music and how to play.”

“In the United States, we spend millions of dollars on sports because it promotes teamwork, discipline, and the experience of learning to make great progress in small increments. Learning to play music does all this and more.”

“I never thought of myself as a rock singer. I was interested in songs like 'Heart Like a Wheel,' and I liked the others for about 15 minutes.”

“I admire people's marriages, and I think it's a wonderful thing to have, but I don't think it's the only way to live. I think there are many ways to live and many ways to establish intimate support in your life that can be from family or friends or great roommates that you like.”

“As I got older, I got Parkinson's disease, so I couldn't sing at all. That's what happened to me. I was singing at my best strength when I developed Parkinson's. I think I've had it for quite a while.”

“Having children makes you see the world in a completely different way. When you're responsible for those little lives, you can't slough it off or forget about it until later.”

“I'm your basic atheist that believes in maybe - I'm a spiritual atheist.”

“You don't forget you have Parkinson's disease, believe me, especially in the shower. If you are not paying attention, you fall down.”

“I miss singing every day. I can't sing anymore. My voice doesn't work. I have Parkinson's disease, and it sometimes takes my words away from me.”

“Songwriting wasn't my gift. I think you have to cultivate a gift; you have to practice and develop craft around your gift so that you can execute it in more convenient, efficient ways.”

“I wish I had as much in bed as I get in the newspapers.”