I'm a neo-Luddite.
What happens when your dream comes true - when the spotlight is on and then it moves away?
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.
I've finally learned to love my voice for its uniqueness.
I still have all the faith and love for my music and yet I'm still playing places for kids.
Just do what feels right.
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?
I have many moods, and there is no objective reality. And I kind of live by that.
Doing interviews can sometimes mess up my head. It makes me feel dirty. It's frustrating how the press recycles a quote to death.
It makes me feel good to have some comforting effect on someone that needs comfort.
I used to be an over-packer! It took me a while to be smart about what I brought with me. I used to tour with a huge bag full of clothes and another one full of shoes because I wanted to have choices. And I ended up wearing the same pair of shoes all the time!
Puerto Rico has a stray dog problem. Tens of thousands of homeless canines - hundreds of thousands, by some estimates - live and die on the streets and beaches all over this Caribbean island of almost four million people.
The most rabidly religious people are the most rabidly evil.
My growth as an artist and a person has been so slow and gradual, it's hard to make a story out of it.
Human relations, I mess them up, and they let me down.
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.
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.
My whole life was writing, recording and touring over and over again. At some point I realised I wasn't enjoying myself any more.
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've always been in this sort of perpetual state of existential longing. I feel like something's missing.
I finished 'Beautiful Creature,' and I felt somewhat unfulfilled. I felt like this other side of me needed to be released. Some of the songs I left off the album weren't intense enough to be what I wanted. They weren't hard enough.
I wanted to be a writer since I was a little girl - long before I was a musician and a songwriter.
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.
People in L.A. don't have to brace themselves against the cold; they slack off permanently, and their brains turn to mush.
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.
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.
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 could make a whole album with no one else involved at all. It would be a total, unadulterated expression of myself. Because whenever you have others playing on a project, their influence becomes a part of it.
I'm definitely a cult artist.
My dad claims that he was able to trace us back to the West Virginia Hatfields. When I look at the old pictures, the patriarchs have kind of a physical likeness to some of the men on the father's side of my family. I want it to be true.
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'm really conflicted about my role as a front-person. I hate the attention.
I am not dead inside. I still care about right and wrong.
I'm kind of an emotional exhibitionist.
My first guitar was a Gibson Challenger.
You think you know who you are, and then other people have these other ideas.
A heart that hurts is a heart that works.
Motivation is just this potion to create stuff, a compulsion to express the truth of my own experiences in this life.
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.
Harmonies come really naturally to me. I don't have to labor too hard over them. I'll sing a lead vocal, and then I will immediately have all of these other ideas for vocal harmonies. I think that some of the most fun parts of recording, for me, are the vocal harmonies.
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.
I've seen quite a bit of the world, but I really like Sweden and feel like I could live there some day.
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.
People don't analyze Britney Spears' lyrics 'cause they're so obvious, you know? And her image is so kind of blah and mainstream that who really wants to read between the lines, because it's all so out there in front of you and boring and white bread.
The whole thing about rock music, pop music, is it's really for kids.
I'm able to see humor in a lot of things.
Every song brings back memories, like I remember where I wrote all these songs. 'Universal Heartbeat' was my apartment in New York City. 'My Sister' was at my apartment in Boston. I remember places and I remember what I was thinking when I wrote it.
I don't believe songs that try to say everything in a simple slogan.
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?
