Lesley Gore quotes

Lesley Gore was an American singer, songwriter, and pop icon, recognized for hits like "It's My Party" and "You Don't Own Me." Her powerful voice and songs became symbols of female empowerment in the 1960s. She inspired generations of artists and remains a celebrated figure in music history. Here are 12 of her quotes:

You can only bite off so much, so you gotta know what you want to do.

Lesley Gore

I meet a lot of young people in the Midwest, and I saw what a difference a show like In the Life can make to their lives in some of these small towns where, you know, there are probably two gay people in the whole damn town.

Lesley Gore

I don't know any other lifestyle. I get up in the morning and I really do feel that the world is my oyster, and I start that way, the same as I would if I were preparing to write a song: put a blank piece of paper up on the piano and you go for it.

Lesley Gore

Really you just gotta keep chugging along and keep a positive attitude and get through all the problems. You gotta face them, otherwise you don't get through.

Lesley Gore

You know, the interesting thing about having traveled around the country as much as I have, and I think it's sort of inadvertently what made me come out or at least begin doing things within the community and thinking more about that, was that I get to travel quite a bit.

Lesley Gore

Given that there was that era of girl group music and it's still very popular, but I think if you looked at the chart from that time you would see many more men on it. Because the industry, they were catering to young girls. I mean, that's what they thought their audience was.

Lesley Gore

I think the record industry, by and large what's left of it, is still totally homophobic. I think it's much less so in the film industry now, but the record industry, it's always been a man's world.

Lesley Gore

Actually, the funny thing is, after all these years, I've got all these new songs to learn for the show we're doing at Joe's Pub, so it's kind of fun to get down and rehearse new things, and also rethink some of the older songs, how we're going to do them.

Lesley Gore

I still get a chill when I sing, 'You Don't Own Me.' I find some new feeling in it every time.

Lesley Gore

I think I turned to writing really just to wake up in the morning and be a musician and to have something to do, and feel like a musician every day even if I wasn't working.

Lesley Gore