“Canada has a passive-aggressive culture, with a lot of sarcasm and righteousness. That went with my weird messianic complex. The ego is a fascinating monster. I was taught from a young age that I had to serve, so that turned into me thinking I had to save the planet.”
“I was taught from a young age that I had to serve, so that turned into me thinking I had to save the planet.”
“When I was producing on my own, I was doing it in order to - in a very patriarchal entertainment industry, let alone planet - very much hell-bent on trying to prove to myself, if nothing else, that I could do it as a woman.”
“I was always such a people-watcher. I would sit on street corners alone and watch people and make up stories about them in my head. Then, all of a sudden, I was the one being watched.”
“We're taught to be ashamed of confusion, anger, fear and sadness, and to me they're of equal value to happiness, excitement and inspiration.”
“It's a joke to think that anyone is one thing. We're all such complex creatures. But if I'm going to be a poster child for anything, anger's a gorgeous emotion. It gets a bad rap, but it can make great changes happen.”
“When I was younger, I was terrified to express anger because it would often kick-start a horrible reaction in the men in my life. So I bit my tongue. I was left to painstakingly deal with the aftermath of my avoidance later in life, in therapy or through the lyrics of my songs.”
“When someone says that I'm angry it's actually a compliment. I have not always been direct with my anger in my relationships, which is part of why I'd write about it in my songs because I had such fear around expressing anger as a woman.”
“What influenced me was Tori Amos, who was unapologetic about expressing anger through music, and Sinead O'Connor. Those two in particular were really moving for me, and very inspiring, before I wrote 'Jagged Little Pill.'”
“I try to keep a low profile in general. Not with my art, but just as a person.”
“Trauma happens in relationships, so it can only be healed in relationships. Art can't provide healing. It can be cathartic and therapeutic but a relationship is a three-part journey.”
“In LA, where I live, it's all about perfectionism. Beauty is now defined by your bones sticking out of your decolletage. For that to be the standard is really perilous for women.”
“Beauty is now defined by your bones sticking out of your decolletage. For that to be the standard is really perilous for women.”
“I live with some of my best friends from high school, very commune-like, in my house. It's my hippie way of life.”
“At some point, I would like to write a book and other things, but I work best when there is some sort of deadline in my own mind, but not when fifty people or fifty million people are breathing down the back of my neck.”
“I'm doing it because I choose it. And if it's not working, I can make a change.”
“Courage and willingness to just go for it, whether it is a conversation or a spontaneous trip or trying new things that are scary - it is a really attractive quality.”
“I still indulge in a glass of wine or chocolate - treats are mandatory. Without deviating from the day-to-day healthy diet once in a while, it wouldn't be sustainable for me, and that's what I wanted: an approach to eating to last my entire life.”
“For four to six months at a time, I would barely eat. I lived on a diet of Melba toast, carrots, and black coffee.”
“I did commit to myself that I would not jump back into being the workaholic that I can be before I gave myself an honest opportunity to create the marriage of my dreams and to create the beginning of the family of my dreams, and that took a hot second.”
“If I could sell 500 million records every time, it would be great. But I've also had the luxury experience of having it when I was a teenager, in a very kind of model version of it.”
“Getting married and starting a family has been a lifelong goal and one that I have persevered through different paths up to it!”
“Over the last couple of years, I've really worked toward balancing my life out more, having a little bit more time with friends, family and my boyfriend. There was a period of time when they were way down the list. It was all about music and touring and if everything fell by the wayside, so be it.”
“I have a profound empathy for people who are in the public eye, whether they manifest it themselves or whether it happened by accident - it doesn't matter to me. I think there's a great misunderstanding of what it is to be famous.”
“I thought the more famous I became, the more friendships I would have, but the opposite was true.”
“My three addictions of choice are food, love and work.”
“We'll love you just the way you are if you're perfect.”
“A good man often appears gauche simply because he does not take advantage of the myriad mean little chances of making himself look stylish. Preferring truth to form, he is not constantly at work upon the facade of his appearance.”
“I wish people could acheive what they think would bring them happiness in order for them to realize that thats not really what happiness is.”
“There's a continuity between what I care about in any form: I care about it in my music, in article-writing, in how I dress, in how I live, in my relationships, in how I navigate paparazzi, how I decorate my home. There's such a continuity between everything that I don't really care what form it shows up in.”
“I see the whole concept of Generation X implies that everyone has lost hope.”
“In my opinion, I think sarcasm and humor in a song, without turning it into a novelty song, is really charming.”
“Down the road, I'll probably have a kid or two or three. And there will probably be political events or spiritual things to comment on, and humor.”
“I didn't want to be one of those women who wake up at 63 years old and realize they've missed the window of opportunity for marriage and children.”
“I could get away with not taking care of myself as a bachelorette but as a mom I can't.”
“Making a movie requires 20 to 500 people to make and a lot of money and the stakes are a lot higher.”
“And if I had a preference, it would be to be able to not be in the studio until 4 in the morning.”
“I've been really enjoying writing articles and writing music and music for movies.”
“What's that line from TS Eliot? To arrive at the place where you started, but to know it for the first time. I'm able to write about a breakup from a different place. Same brokenness. Same rock-bottom. But a little more informed, now I'm older. Thank God for growing up.”
“I saw music as a way to entertain people and take them away from their daily lives and put smiles on their faces, as opposed to what I see it being now, which is a way for me to actually communicate, and a way for me to tap into my subconscious.”
“Anything I do has to be directly related to my music. If it isn't, I don't really see a point to it.”
“I started playing piano when I was 6. And I knew that wanted to be involved in that form of expression, whether it was through music, or acting, or dancing, or painting, or writing.”
“I'm clearly most well known for my music. Eventually, ultimately, I'll be writing books. I'm still writing articles now. I just consider myself a writer.”
“My message to anyone who's afraid that they can't write music when they're happy is 'Just trust the passion.' The passion can write a lot of things.”
“It's not just the 'Grammys' that I've pulled out of. I also pulled out of the English awards as well. The reason that I wanted to pull out was because I believe very much that the music industry as a whole is mainly concerned with material success.”
“Music will always be a part of my life. I love music and I don't care how many units I sell.”
“When I'm off the road, my husband and I recharge our batteries. It's a day of deep rest and connection with the spiritual, and that can be anything - going for a walk in nature, being in silence, burning incense.”
“Then I realized that secrecy is actually to the detriment of my own peace of mind and self, and that I could still sustain my belief in privacy and be authentic and transparent at the same time. It was a pretty revelatory moment, and there's been a liberating force that's come from it.”
“Peace of mind for five minutes, that's what I crave.”
“I think it's child abuse to have someone in the public eye too young. Society basically values wealth and fame and power at the cost of well-being. In the case of a child, it's at the cost of someone's natural development. It's already hard enough to develop.”
“My greatest environments in which I can grow, or grow up, is in personal romantic relationships with a man.”
“America's a very traumatized society.”
“I was motivated by just thinking that if you had all this external success that everyone would love you and everything would be peaceful and wonderful.”
“As a teen, I was both anorexic and bulimic.”
“Ageism works in both directions. As a teenager in the public eye, people would talk condescendingly to me. When you get older there's this feeling that you have to start carving up your face and body. Right now I'm in the middle ground - I think women in their thirties are taken seriously.”
“I'm excited about there being more of a sisterhood these days. Back in the '90s there was a lot of hate - the women I looked up to as artists were dissing me! It's not so patriarchal these days - there's more love and a lot less hate!”