Natalie Merchant

My mother was a single working mother; she started having children very young. There was a tension inside her about who she wanted to be and what she wanted to do and how she couldn't achieve the things she wanted to.

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!

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

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

What a cold and rainy day where on earth is the sun hid away?

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

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've raised my daughter with no television.

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

Literature gives us a window into other people's experiences in other places, in other times, so I thought it would be really interesting to investigate how different people had written about motherhood, and childhood.

People ruthless, people cruel see the damage that some people do full of hatred, full of pride it's enough to make you lose your mind

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

Poetry comes alive to me through recitation.

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

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.

I'm going to be shaking my booty when I'm 55.

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

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.

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

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

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