Natalie Merchant Quotes

Im going to be shaking my booty when Im 55.

I wish I had appreciated my youth - I should have worn tighter clothing when I could have!

For your kindness, I'm in debt to you. For your selflessness, my admiration.

Poetry comes alive to me through recitation.

I've raised my daughter with no television.

TV holds a close second to cars for destroying our society. It's a failed experiment.

Life is sweet, life is also very short.

The research phase was really fascinating - I'm not a closeted nerd, I'm an out-of-the-closet nerd.

Have I been wrong? Have I been wise to shut my eyes?

I don't think women's prisons are environments for dance routines, and I don't think mass murder is humorous.

I don't want to live in a culture of despair. I'd like to live in a culture of hope.

I would say I'd rather dig a ditch, you know, do hard, manual labor than write lyrics.

I’ve always considered it a great privilege to be a musician, I’ve never lost sight of that.

Be true to yourself, and, um, don't worry about some large companies' quarterly profit index.

I was shy. Bookish. The kind of 13-year-old girl who, instead of having a boyfriend, would have a crush on a dead, 19th-century author!

I've found out how overwhelming the media is and the way it drills things into your head, it's almost like a mind control. If I could control prople's minds, I'd like to put something useful in.

I think of myself as a musician and not a celebrity. Celebrity status is something you have to deliberately pursue - I couldn't imagine myself seeking that.

I don't enjoy the work that I do. It's just that it's not self-sustaining anymore. The way that I like to make records - they're expensive records to make and just can't afford to do it anymore.

I go to the river from time to time to ponder over the crazy days in my life. Watch the river flow, ease my mind and soul where I go.

I don't have a lot of thrilling anecdotes about my career or personal life. All the stuff that is interesting is private and I wouldn't want people to know.

Have I been blind, have I been lost, inside myself and my own mind?

By calling it a memoir, I meant is as a collection of memories. I thought it was (a more) artful (title) than documentary.

I'm on this search trying to figure out exactly who I am and what I have to say to people.

I think I don't invest so much time in thinking about people's sexuality. I just take people as individuals.

I think I have a really diverse audience. I've had people from all sorts of sexual persuasions.

I've never sold my publishing. I have 100% control of all of my publishing and that includes everything, every use of my songs.

When it came time to sequence the album, the new arrangements really demanded a different order. They were so different than they were before that the old sequence didn't work anymore.

It's funny, I remember doing the Johnny Carson show, and, uh, I couldn't afford my rent.

I can't remove the autobiographical slant from the things I write. You always bring yourself into what you're writing.

It's really wonderful to be able to be nobody, and then have a moment when I can be somebody, and then go right back to being nobody again.