Juliana Hatfield

People make such a big deal about how people in bands look, especially if you're a girl.

I have many moods, and there is no objective reality. And I kind of live by that.

I find myself a fascinating subject.

The way I see it, all the popular singers are strippers.

It may seem strange, but the most grateful I've ever felt was when I was held up at gunpoint. After I handed over my wallet and the mugger ran off into the woods, I thought, 'Thank you for not shooting me.' I was overwhelmingly glad to be alive and unharmed.

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 dad was depressed a lot of the time, and there were a lot of things in his life that he never resolved.

People need meanings to everything. People want you to intellectualize every choice you make.

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.

When I first started making music, I didn't really know what I was doing. I just wanted to write songs. I didn't have a concept. I didn't think it through. I was just flailing around doing what comes naturally. It took me a really long time to step back and deal with what I was doing with any kind of perspective or self-awareness.

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.

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.

I like visiting LA, but I wouldn't want to live there.

I'm a neo-Luddite.

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 still have all the faith and love for my music and yet I'm still playing places for kids.

Keanu Reeves is, like, the worst actor I've ever seen. I can't believe he's a movie star.

I tend to fall for the archetypal, talented, charismatic rock boy.

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.

My soul is fine, thanks.

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 think everyone's pretty much the same underneath. The collective unconscious is a real thing. There's only a few emotions, and we all have them. There's, like, seven emotions. So personal is universal. Everyone experiences confusion, joy and pain, just in different forms.

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.

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?

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've finally learned to love my voice for its uniqueness.

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.

Some of the songs are so crazy, the words are so crazy... it's hard to believe I was so crazy.

You find yourself approaching middle age, playing another scuzzy rock club.

I am not dead inside. I still care about right and wrong.

The most rabidly religious people are the most rabidly evil.

When I start writing, I'll have a vague concept or I'll just have a title, and the song just goes on its own direction. Usually it goes in many directions within each song. They get really convoluted sometimes.

A heart that hurts is a heart that works.

As long as there are religions, there are going to be people who are hiding their rottenness behind the veil of religion.

David Ortiz is a genius. He's incredible to watch. Over and over, he hits home runs that are simply transcendent.

I'm able to see humor in a lot of things.

My knees are ticklish.

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.

At heart I am a librarian, a bird-watcher, a transcendentalist, a gardener, a spinster, a monk.

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.

You can learn so much just by doing, not by listening to anybody.

People are complex. I'm just showing my complexity.

My first guitar was a Gibson Challenger.

The first kiss between two people is something really good in life.

It makes me feel good to have some comforting effect on someone that needs comfort.

I'm not a very good advice-giver.

If you do things when you're burned out, it'll make you bitter.

What happens when your dream comes true - when the spotlight is on and then it moves away?

It costs a lot of money to make an album in a studio in New York with a producer and musicians. I have to pay a publicist every month. I have to pay for mastering, production, the manufacturing of the discs. Then, to promote an album properly, you have to spend a lot of money.

Human relations, I mess them up, and they let me down.

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.

Writing helps me process things that are happening to me.

All I'm trying to do is to keep going and keep evolving.

I love playing in front of people. I feel powerful, 'cause I don't have to really say anything - I'm just singing.

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.

If you do things when youre burned out itll make you bitter.

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 make music and I can't stop. It's a compulsion and an obsession and a curse.

You think you know who you are, and then other people have these other ideas.

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!

The whole thing about rock music, pop music, is it's really for kids.

I was just dying to get out of my twenties.

I don't believe songs that try to say everything in a simple slogan.

In this world, where everything happens so fast, it's hard to sit back, take the time and contemplate.

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.

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.

Just do what feels right.

I'm kind of an emotional exhibitionist.

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.

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.

I've been embarrassing myself publicly for over 20 years. Why should I stop now?

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.

I never really expected to win the hearts of the masses.

I'm really conflicted about my role as a front-person. I hate the attention.

From the beginning, I've always had a knack for catchy melodies. But I went through a period when I was trying to be rock n' roll and have a rock n' roll attitude. I was fighting my nature by trying to play really hard and sing really hard. But at a certain point, I realized that I loved syrupy pop music with tons of harmony.

Puerto Ricans who find they can no longer afford to keep their pets often choose to drop their dogs, sometimes even whole litters of puppies, at a beach - sometimes under cover of night, in secret - rather than surrender the animal to a city or state-run shelter where the animals will face grim conditions and almost certain death by euthanasia.

Baseball is more than a game. It's like life played out on a field.

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.

Everything's been a struggle for me.

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.

I'm a damaged person, but I have hope and a will to not give up.

To make big steps, you've got to take action yourself and not listen to other people.

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 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.

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've always been a loner, and I've spent most of my life as a single person.

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've seen quite a bit of the world, but I really like Sweden and feel like I could live there some day.

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 don't feel bad or scared about getting older in terms of my looks or anything like that. I'm not afraid of my face changing. I enjoy seeing my face change. I think it's really interesting. I wouldn't want to have same face for my whole life. It would be boring to look at the same face in the mirror for 80 years.

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 get a little sick of myself as a solo artist. I get a little bit bored.

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 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 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.

I'm full of contradictions.

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.

My songs are about not knowing who to be and not knowing how to act.

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.