Quotables   "The image we have would be impossible for Mickey Mouse to maintain. We're just....normal people." KAREN CARPENTER "I had no idea whether I could play 'em or not, but I wanted to and I was very determined. . . but the band director said "That's not really normal." Of course, all you have to tell me is that something's not normal and I'll go for it!!" KAREN CARPENTER Pages 1, 2

Gene Simmons
From the band: KISS
"KISS AND MAKE-UP"
On singer Karen Carpenter: "Where I had initially walked down with seduction on my mind, the truth is, sex was the last thing that either one of us wanted from the other that night." Mostly intellectual conversation. A miss."

"Gut Feelings" by Carnie Wilson
"I knew I wanted to be a singer when I heard voices like Barbara Streisand and Karen Carpenter. My parents loved the Carpenters, and we played their records all the time at home. It didn't matter whether you liked that style of music or not. It was the magic in Karen's voice that was so soothing, and the lushness of the layered harmonies that were like soft clouds of sound."

Excerpt from a book written by Richard Simmons
STILL HUNGRY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS...
"I remember once I took a reservation for the Carpenters, and the whole family came in: mother, father Richard and Karen. Although there had been a lot of articles about Karen being heavy, by this time she was very thin. They ordered everything: the mozzarella marinara, the french-fried zucchini basket with Parmesan cheese, the baby shrimp whipped into a cream sauce and put into a light pastry shell, the Caesar salad, veal dishes, and pasta. I noticed right away that Karen cut her food and sort of moved it around the plate, but she ate very little. She never touched her entree. I had been there. I knew the consequences of starving, and I was a little worried about her. When I cleared the table, there was still a lot of food on her plate.
I joked, "Come on Karen. Finish this up." And then I started singing, "Close to you..." and they all laughed-all except her brother Richard. He didn't think I was so funny.
Not too long after this dinner, Karen died. I read newspaper reports of her longtime battle to be thin. I felt a great sadness. How I wished there was something I could have said or done for her, something that would have helped her to understand that she was on a dead-end path. Would she have listened? I would never know. But I was deeply troubled by her death. She and I were closer than I thought..."

MANDY MOORE
"Karen Carpenter. She is one of my biggest inspirations. Her voice is beyond words"

MADONNA
"My musical influences -- wow. They ranged from Karen Carpenter to the Supremes to Led Zeppelin. Those were my musical influences"

KATIE BAUGHMAN
"Karen Carpenter had an amazing voice, I just wish she thought the same about her body image."

KD LANG
"...I compare her with Nat King Cole and uh....there's very few singers that are that rich actually...."

BARBARA STREISAND
Said Karen had a "marvelous instrument"