Quote Land

on being perceived as a *goddess*
"God. Look, my songs are just little letters to me-they're like, Okay, this is what happened, this
is what you did wrong, this is what you'll do next time. I've never said "I am the truth, I am
the way." but a lot of women project onto me the embodiment of their own tansition from
girlhood to womanhood-learning to be agressive or just be themeselves. And I think it's good
that people take certain issues seriously. But I can't solve the problems of my own life, let alone
anyone else's, so taking me seriously is a big mistake. (laughs) I certainly wouldn't."

on the womyn who were upset about an entire album devoted to a straight relationship
"It was probably a really necessary loss of innocence for them- like finding out your parents are
assholes after you thought they were God. We all need to see ourselves affirmed somewhere in
our culture, those of us who aren't on the television or in the history books. And I can appreciate
how when you find somebody who makes sense to you, you latch on to them. But it's a
dangerous dynamic. I mean, please--Shrine to the Goddess?"

on looking at her songs for their words, not the meaning
"In "Shameless" for instance, there's a line that says, "I've got to
cover my butt because I covet another man's wife." It's a metaphoric, like Thou shalt not cover
another man's wife. And in the actual, literal gender situation that I was writing about, it's a man I
was coveting and his woman who will be mad at us."

she’s still with goat boy!
"Yes, and me and Mr. Dilate have an almost ungendered love. It's so funny that I'm now seen as
being the straight girl of the universe, whereas with this guy I get more of a girl than any of the
women I ever hung out with. Because we sort of take turns."

"i speak, without reservation, from what i know and who i am. i do so with the understanding that all people should have the right to offer thir voice to the chorus whether the result is harmony or dissonance. the worldsong is a colorless dirge without the differences that distiguish us, and it is that difference which should be celebrated not condemned. should any part of my music offend you, please do not close your ears to it. just take what you can use and go on."

"i want to challenge women to speak up, to believe in the power of their own voices."

"Well, I'm a socialist and an anarchist,"she says. "I'm kinda straddling the fence there. So I can't bring myself to work for Warners or any such entity. I won't fool myself for a second into thinking that people in the industry even give a shit about music, let alone society; that's totall not the point for them. I've been getting all sort's of offers for a long time, but I just don't find the music industry-- or any huge corporate capitalist system -- very interesting. And the growth of my career might be ultimately stunted by that, but I don't care. I'd rather be able to face myself in the bathroom mirror than to be rich and famous." (from 3/95 interview in Indie Eye)

"I'd like to be an encouragement -- that's wonderful -- but then, I can't do it all. That's where it ends. Then each one of us has to become ourselves. With most of my music, the message is you can do this, we can do this, we are in this together, so let's do it." (from 3/95 interview in Indie Eye)

"I've got nothing to hide: I'll tell anybody anything because ..."... we've gotta fucking talk to each other before we'll ever get anything done in this old world." (from 3/95 interview in Indie Eye)

"I see all my music - the anger, the love songs, whatever - as coming from a place of respect, and it's that I care so much, I expect more from this world. We can do better."

"If you're not angry about something, then you don't care enough. Because there's so much injustice."

"We all have our own `us and them,' and my `us' includes men and women of like mind who treat people with respect."

"I don't know why anybody would work for somebody else if they could work for themselves, I have complete artistic control. l don't have to compromise myself politically or financially. I don't have to support a multinational music business/corporation scene that I don't wish to support."

"I'm never quite sure if I'm a freak at the folk festival or some chick with an acoustic guitar at a rock club..."

"there's a thousand shades of white and a thousand shades of black, but the same rule always applies smile pretty and watch your back"

"The life of a folk singer -- you stay in alot of people's houses, pet a lot of people's cats, and you're gone the next day. You get to look at a lot of vignettes of people's lives, snippets of what their lives are like. You sort of enter into their realm for a few hours the then you're gone. It's sort of like the world as a movie and never quite being a part of it."

"If you want to challenge the system, don't go to bed with it."

"Shave your head, not your legs!"

"If you don't think I'm cute, are you still going to listen to what I have to say?"

"I tend to be in my day-to-day life much more the smiling young woman than I want to be," she says. Rather than "an angry, puppy-eating militant babe, I'm more a giggly, goofy, sort of everyday babe."

``It certainly makes a lot of sense to have others take care of everything so I can do art. But in another sense, it is easy for women to turn over control of life to husbands. "Self-empowerment in all different flavors comes with work and self-sacrifice. For me, it is worth it.''

"One minute I'm a raging dyke, and the next minute, I"m straight."

"The thing is, people draw this line," she continues, "And they want you to be on one side or the other. So, if I had to say anything, I'd say I'm standing on the line." "But if I'm standing on the line, how am I supposed to dance around?"

~ani difranco

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