Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I still have all the faith and love for my music and yet I'm still playing places for kids.
People need meanings to everything. People want you to intellectualize every choice you make.
At heart I am a librarian, a bird-watcher, a transcendentalist, a gardener, a spinster, a monk.
I wanted to be a writer since I was a little girl - long before I was a musician and a songwriter.
I'm totally committed to the cause of individuality. That's the only thing I stand by: independence.
I feel some kind of duty to be really, really honest as a writer. The same is true of my songwriting.
I think the reason I've been able to keep making music is because I'm not married, I don't have kids.
In this world, where everything happens so fast, it's hard to sit back, take the time and contemplate.
My growth as an artist and a person has been so slow and gradual, it's hard to make a story out of it.
I've seen quite a bit of the world, but I really like Sweden and feel like I could live there some day.
I've always been in this sort of perpetual state of existential longing. I feel like something's missing.
My dad was depressed a lot of the time, and there were a lot of things in his life that he never resolved.
I want to paint. That is probably going to sound so pretentious coming from someone who's been a musician.
David Ortiz is a genius. He's incredible to watch. Over and over, he hits home runs that are simply transcendent.
I love playing in front of people. I feel powerful, 'cause I don't have to really say anything - I'm just singing.
If you want to achieve things in life, you've just got to do them, and if you're talented and smart, you'll succeed.
Motivation is just this potion to create stuff, a compulsion to express the truth of my own experiences in this life.
My music - that's the one area I won't let myself be pushed around. But in other parts of my life, I'm a confused mess.
As long as there are religions, there are going to be people who are hiding their rottenness behind the veil of religion.
People in L.A. don't have to brace themselves against the cold; they slack off permanently, and their brains turn to mush.
When I did have a little bit of commercial success, it really didn't suit my temperament at all. I'm a terrible public person.
I don't buy a lot when I travel, but when I do, I like to send gifts from wherever I am. It's fun to find the local post office.
Doing interviews can sometimes mess up my head. It makes me feel dirty. It's frustrating how the press recycles a quote to death.
My whole life was writing, recording and touring over and over again. At some point I realised I wasn't enjoying myself any more.
I don't really care about money. I find money boring and accounting boring, so I'm probably not going to ever make a lot of money.
I listen to NPR and baseball games when I'm in my car. I mean, exclusively NPR and baseball games, and that's it, as far as the radio.
I still have a lot of those depressive thoughts, but now I have the foresight to tell myself, 'Don't think like that,' and things seem better.
Once I picked up an electric guitar, I lost interest in piano, and I just wanted to rock. I studied piano for so long, I got burned out on it.
What does it mean to a person whose identity is very wrapped up in the music she makes, if her worth is measured by how many records she sells?
If I have to work in McDonalds, fine - I had a really great run and made a living at music for 20 years, and how many other people can say that?
Although I'm a huge fan of Ben Kweller, I don't think I'd cover one of his songs, simply because there's just so much of my own stuff I wanna do.
Music is so hard. It's a struggle to get people to care. It's hard to make an impact in today's world because people aren't buying records anymore.
I can't believe I got a major-label record deal. My music was quirky, and my voice was so odd and high and girlish, it was like a weird novelty act.
I have been a bridesmaid. Fortunately, the outfits were pretty tame. They were cream and black, but I still wouldn't wear them out in public, though.
I'd just like to inspire people to be themselves and do what they want and not conform to the rigid guidelines of the music or entertainment business.
I always believe that a person can learn so much by just jumping into something and trying to do it rather than having someone else teach you everything.
Songwriting is like editing. You write down all this stuff - all this bad, stupid stuff - and then you have to get rid of everything except the very best.
I never felt happy with the idea that part of what I do is to be an object to be looked at. I thought of my public persona as an entity separate to myself.
I don't have anything to prove anymore. I don't have a record deal, no one has any expectations, I'm in a position of freedom. I don't need anyone's approval.
I'm just trying to get rid of all the mystery surrounding me and let people see what I'm thinking. So they can understand me and stop assuming things about me.
I don't make money on the road, and so there's less and less incentive for me to do it when I don't have that adolescent desire for whatever it is, glory or fame.
Songwriting is like going to church. I'm connecting to something, and it's rewarding in really important ways. I don't need to share it with anyone to feel good about it.
I wanted to be a writer. I still want to be a prose writer. I feel I am more temperamentally suited to that kind of life, although there are things I still want to do with music.
A lot of so-called Christian souls are not fine. People need to look inside themselves and look at the lives they're leading and fix themselves before they try to fix other people.
Sometimes I feel like a human pin cushion. Every painful emotion hits me with ridiculously exaggerated force. And the anxiety feels like hands inside of me, squeezing my guts really hard.
To me, success was not having to have a boss and not having a day job. I've been living my own version of success since the early '90s when I first got signed. I haven't had a job since then.
For a long time, music was hope. Now it seems music isn't enough to make me happy. It used to be that's all I needed to keep going. Now I need other things to take up the other parts of my life.
I'm pretty good with languages. I know a bit of French and actually want to live in France some day so that I can get fluent. I think it'd be tragic to go through life only knowing one language.
I don't think I'm romantic at all. I have a lot of faith in the right thing happening. I don't really hope for a lot of particulars, I just have faith that the right thing will happen most of the time.
My guitar playing has not developed as much as I think it could because I never practice. I only play when I'm writing or recording or when I'm playing on tour. When I'm sitting around at home, I never play.