"There is a light at the end of the tunnel... hopefully it's not a freight train!"
About this Quote
As a pop musician, Carey is fluent in the performance of resilience. Her career has been a long public negotiation with reinvention, scrutiny, and the demand to keep sparkling even when the industry shifts under you. The line reads like an artist's backstage realism slipping through the sequins. It's not nihilism; it's a refusal to pretend that "staying positive" is a strategy in itself. The word "hopefully" matters, too. It doesn't cancel the fear, it coexists with it, the way fans and celebrities alike learn to live: wanting the comeback, bracing for the headline.
Culturally, the quote works because it captures a very 20th/21st-century mood: motivational language exhausted by overuse, made honest again through punchline. Carey's wit turns the cliché into something more durable - a permission slip to be hopeful without being naive.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Carey, Mariah. (2026, February 17). There is a light at the end of the tunnel... hopefully it's not a freight train! FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-a-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel-104129/
Chicago Style
Carey, Mariah. "There is a light at the end of the tunnel... hopefully it's not a freight train!" FixQuotes. February 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-a-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel-104129/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"There is a light at the end of the tunnel... hopefully it's not a freight train!" FixQuotes, 17 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/there-is-a-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel-104129/. Accessed 17 Feb. 2026.






