Valerie Simpson

“It's a songwriter's dream to have a song recorded and run up the charts.”

“I guess I'm in a state of becoming. Even though I've had a full career and I've been around a long time, it's like dinosaurs are coming back. It's all new. I'm having to be on my own and seeing how exciting life can be now.”

“We have been playing to a 70-30 black to white audience. And we are just doing what should come next, trying to attract a larger house, trying to reach an audience that's half black and white.”

“My daughters are here, and that makes me feel good. And with the spirit of Nick Ashford, I think I'll make it through. I have no choice.”

“It's interesting when you've been a partner with someone for so long. So now to sing solo and starting all over again I am learning that I am more bodacious than I thought. I don't know where it's coming from but I am glad.”

“I've already lived one full life, and so now I'm about to endeavor to see what else the good Lord has in store for me, and I'm wide open.”

“We stand on our songs and we stand on the songs that we wrote for other people. That gives us a higher platform.”

“When you're a producer and an artist you're very critical of yourself. I like to produce other people, but I'm not that good at producing myself.”

“Both my grandmothers had upright pianos, and I just knew how to play since I was a child. Nobody taught me. I sounded like a grown-up, and then I learned how to read music. I played so well by ear I could fool the teacher to believe I could play the notes. She'd make the mistake of playing the song once, and I could play it.”

“Sometimes you want a Part Two in your life.”

“I don't know what I want to do. There are people who want me to do things. There's a possible book. There are lots of things to consider. I just have to figure out what I want to do. I'm not one to sit around and do nothing.”

“You know, we have two families: the one we're born into, and the one that we make for ourselves afterwards.”

“There is a formula that allows you to write a decent song. But a song like 'You're All I Need to Get By,' it just writes itself.”

“And it's a lot harder to hide with four musicians than it is with eight.”

“I was a good sight reader and I could sing two or three of these jingles a day. An orchestra would come in for half an hour, and then the singers would come in and knock 'em out, and go on to the next one. I was the voice of Budweiser and Almond Joy.”

“Nobody in my family was musical. I had no idea you could be a songwriter and make a living at it. It was all discovery. It was all just thrown at me.”

“Motown was the mecca. It was every writer's dream to work there.”

“In transition I think the spirit goes somewhere, but I don't think it leaves.”

“In the future I think the labels on most pop music are going to go. Everyone keeps jumping into everyone else's space.”