I wasn’t very ambitious as a child. I’m still not.

Cause I don’t appreciatePeople whoDon’t appreciate

I don’t care what people do. I don’t care how people remember my albums. I do them for my own reasons.

I walk my dog at dawn because I don’t like people to be around.

And I will pretendthat I don’t know of your sinsuntil you are ready to confessbut all the timeI’ll know

Home is where my habits have a habitat

I caved in to what people wanted me to do. I thought that they weren’t going to like me if I didn’t.

No, I’ve never wanted kids. But I do read about parenting a lot.

I’m actually doing great and I’m very happy.

If I respect myself and believe in what I’m doing, no one can touch me.

When I was a kid – 10, 11, 12, 13 – the thing I wanted most in the world was a best friend. I wanted to be important to people; to have people that understood...

I’m here because of what I write. Obviously, I must know something.

When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He’ll Win the Whole Thing ‘Fore He Enters the Ring There’s...

I have a very steadfast tendency to parent myself, to monitor my development into the person I want to be. I’ve tried to keep the corruption minimal.

I want to be like the patron saint of reality.

Nobody sees when you are lying in your bedand I want to crawl in with youbut I cry instead

I’m incredibly impressed by people who organize to achieve a goal, and believe that they can make a difference and then go ahead and do just that. I think it’s incredible.

I was never somebody who grew up going, ‘I really want to be a singer in a band,’ and I never had any ambition toward anything, really.

The age thing really bugs me. Do people have more of a right to not like what I say because I’m 19?

I was freaked out about it, … I felt guilty; I felt really moved that people cared about me that much, but I’m still kind of paralyzed because I can’t do it the way I...

The way I feel about music is that there is no right and wrong. Only true and false.

But I honestly don’t read critics. My dad reads absolutely everything ever written about me. He calls me up to read ecstatic reviews, but I always insist that I can’t hear them. If you give...

I’ve never been to the websites. It’s a lot healthier for me to keep out of the conversations about me.

I’m a really good parent to myself sometimes, and I do things that make me learn and grow.

There were songs I would write about breaking up with somebody before I broke up with them, months and months before I broke up with them.

[During her sabbatical, she said, she would often sit in her backyard in Venice, Calif., thinking and playing with pine cones.] I was making little pine-cone people with razor blades, … That’s all I did.

I got all my work done to graduate in two months and then they were like, I’m sorry, you have to take driver’s ed. I just kind of went, Oh, forget it.

I was so self-critical. I still am, but it’s not as bad anymore.

The quick success was a bit strange to get used to.

It makes me panic inside to think that I’m not going to be able to remember my own songs and the work that it’s going to take to learn them again.

Everybody sees me as this sullen and insecure little thing. Those are just the sides of me that I feel it’s necessary to show because no one else seems to be showing them.

I think I’m better at live shows than I used to be because I’m way more comfortable with the uncomfortable pauses between songs. Now, rather than trying to talk or do a costume change, I’ll...

Our ancestors always thought of the worst thing that could happen, and that’s why we’re alive.

I got a lot of problems, but I’m really good at intuiting what I need to do to be happy with whatever I create. I know when to stop myself, I know when to start,...

I can’t remember writing any of the songs that I’ve written.

I got my feet on the ground and I don’t go to sleep to dream, you got your head in the clouds you’re not at all what you seem.

Nothing that you do will ever feel good if you let people convince you that you have no choice.

I’m not used to not having enough time to live with the songs. Usually, if I write something, I live with it for a little while.

I wrote ‘Criminal’ in 45 minutes when everyone else went to lunch because I had to have a hit. I can force myself to do the work, but only if someone is right up behind...

Now that my album is finally finished, I am very, very excited to have people hear what we did. I am so proud of it, and all of us who worked on it.

For me, the best times are always going to be the most intense, the ones with the highest highs and the lowest lows.

Life is all about the friendship and the love and the music. It sounds silly, but it is. I want to have that experience as much as I can as an adult, not as a...

You know, I’ve always thought that it would be really funny if somebody made a romantic comedy where absolutely everything went well from beginning to end.

I never thought I’d be in a position where people would be talking about my sexuality and saying how good I look in underwear.

I don’t go on lunch dates with friends. I hear about people having dinner parties, but I never do that. I’m not really human.

My biggest inspiration has been romantic relationships, because there’s something about the way that you are in a relationship that is reflective of your relationship with the world.

Rape is the most humiliating thing that can be done to you; it’s the most vulnerable that you can be. But once I realized that, I became a stronger person and faced all my fears.

My whole life, people have been saying, Why are you so angry?

I can bake. I made myself some nice French fries once. But otherwise I just eat out. Lots of salad bars.

You got your game, made your shot, and you got away With a lot, but I’m not turned on So put away that meat you’re selling.