Quote Of The Day By Pat Benatar: 'Think Of All The Amazing Things That You Could Be To Each Other ...'

Born in Brooklyn in 1953, Patricia Andrzejewski started singing as a child, initially focusing hard on opera. She dropped out of college at 19 to marry her first husband, Dennis Benatar, becoming a full-time singer in 1973 after seeing a live performance by Liza Minnelli. Moving back to New York, Pat Benatar caught the eye of manager Rick Newman, and in between acting jobs on the stage and small screen, she honed her on-stage persona, landing a record deal with Chrysalis in the late '70s. There, she met musician Neil Giraldo, whom she later married.

In 1979, Benatar's debut album "In the Heat of the Night" scored a Top 40 Billboard hit with the single "Heartbreaker," which peaked at No. 23 in early 1980, and she followed it up with a string of hit albums and singles, including "Love Is a Battlefield" and the anthemic "We Belong." Trailblazer Benatar won the Grammy for best female rock vocal performance four times between 1980 and 1983, but motherhood forever changed her view of the industry, as she felt pressure from her record label to quickly return to work.

Benatar, who occasionally butted heads with her label over her sound, left Chrysalis in 1993 and has spent the years since charting her own course. As well as being a passionate artist and a long-term, staunch ally to the LGBTQI community, the singer has often thrown her star name behind issues including unhoused female veterans and women's rights. Today's quote from her is a timely reminder that, no matter what we're going through, we're all human.

"Everybody is worth something, and think of all the amazing things that you could be to each other, to people you don't even know, of all the things that you could accomplish."

Pat Benatar gave journalist Jancee Dunn that powerful quote in a 2003 interview with The Believer magazine. Dunn caught up with Benatar in Minneapolis during a summer tour and before the singer hit the road again, with husband Neil Giraldo and their two daughters in tow, to promote the album "Go."

The quote was part of a much longer answer to the question of what motivated her. Benatar said she couldn't "stand what people do to each other." She described humans as "brilliant" and "amazing," but was horrified at how we threw everything she thought God had given us back in his face. "Sometimes we're such s***heads," she added. What goes around comes around, and we could all use a little more kindness.

Pat Benatar is beloved by celebrities and fans alike, but she has always worn her heart on her sleeve, expressing herself through her art or by campaigning for issues she feels strongly about. Motherhood served to amplify that, and her frustration with the inability of people to change their behavior and be kind comes through loud and clear in her quote: "Think of all the amazing things that you could be to each other ..."

Benatar experienced that lack of care firsthand when she returned to the recording studio after having her first child. There was no flexibility or consideration for her as a new mom — for the studio, it was simply business as usual. "There was no slack," she told Billy Corgan on his podcast "The Magnificent Others." But the music industry as a whole was "pretty misogynistic," and people in the industry insisted she wouldn't make it because, as she told Dan Rather, "girls didn't sell out Madison Square Garden."

Instead of judging books by their covers and imposing limitations based on those preconceptions or prejudices, Benatar urges all of us to move away from negative reinforcements and instead take care of each other. A rising tide lifts all boats, and seeing the good in someone else can help us find joy in our own lives, too.

"There's so many stereotypes, and I always want to try something that's a little out of the ordinary."

"My only reason to do anything is artistic."

"I like to stay here right where I am but the next thing that I really like to do is go forward ... There is nothing about going backwards that is appealing to me."

"Somewhere deep inside, you know which is the right path and which is the wrong one."

"My whole thing is ... my thing is to come out swinging. My whole thing is ... not to be quiet. That's my self."

"Once you put away all the fear of trying something new, you get revitalized. If you do something too long, you get locked into it so much until you can't see anything else anymore."

"Over the past 31 years I have been a singer, a lover, a businesswoman, a daughter, a friend, a wife, a mother, and yes, sometimes even a rock star. In my journey I tried my best to honor all of these things. In the end, I suppose that's all that's really required. I am exactly where I want to be. The only clock that I punch is the one that I built myself."