“Love came easy, but it just wasn't for me.It flew away like swallows on a summer evening.Love sang softly, but it just wasn't to me.Was I a fool to give my love, to give my soul, and more away?My heart aches with longing, cries each night,As I just fall apart.—Carmen, singing "Love Has Flown Away”
“Love came to me, but itJust wasn't for me.It touched my heart and left itLying on the shore, andLove smiled at me, but itJust wasn't for me.It glanced my way with pity, butI soon knew it had other plans.Once again my heart was broken;I was all alone toMourn.―Carmen, singing the reprise to "Love Has Flown Away”
“A bell's not a bell 'til you ring it - A song's not a song 'til you sing it - Love in your heart wasn't put there to stay - Love isn't love 'til you give it away!”
“I am burning. I have to live, I have to sing, I want to transform myself into a thousand different characters and carry their life with me onto the stage where it's so bright and so dark at the same time, just knowing there are three thousand people out there longing to be swept away by the passion that's about to flood out from scarlet curtains, to this I consecrate my body and my soul, I can give no more than all of myself, I feel my heart is a throbbing engine and my voice is the valve, like a wailing train, it has to sing or blow up, there's too much fuel, too much fire, and what am I to do with this voice if I can't let it out, it's not just singing. I am here as a speck, but I don't feel scared or about to be blown away, I feel like all New York is a warm embrace just waiting to enfold me. I am in love. But not with a person. I am passionately in love with my life.”
“My love is unique an none can rival her. Just by passing, she has already stolen away my heart.”
“She imagined herself as some sort of vessel to be filled up with love. But it wasn't like that. The love was within her all the time, and its only renewal came from giving it away.”