Ani DiFranco Quotes

What bugs me is that you believe what you're saying. What bothers me is that you don't know how you feel. What scares me is that while you're telling me stories, you actually believe that they are real.

I think if we can't use the word feminist, if it's some kind of taboo or dirty word, or means you're ugly, or you're angry, or you're not dateable [laughs], then you've just reduced the language by a whole concept.

Somedays the line I walk turns out to be straight - Other days the line tends to deviate.

We are wise, wise women. We are giggling girls.

Then I show up steady ready and proud and I find I've forgotten how to talk out loud. Isn't it just like you to bring me to my knees?

I speak without reservation, from what I know and who I am. I do so with the understanding that all people should have the right to offer their voices to the chorus whether the result is harmony or dissonance. The worldsong is a colorless dirge without the differences that distinguish us, and it is that difference which should be celebrated not condemned.

When I look down, I miss all the good stuff And when I look up, I just trip over things.

I am a thinned-skinned type. I am very sensitive, very emotional. Vulnerability is kind of always a part of my day.

Art is why I get up in the morning, but my definition ends there.

But as bad as I am, I'm proud of the fact that I'm worse than I seem

When you sit right down in the middle of yourself you're gonna wanna have a comfortable chair.

I think I'm a very solitary person. To actually not be anonymous is a bit claustrophobic for me.

There's a paradox in every paradigm.

If you don't live what you sing about, your mirror is gonna fade.

At night when you're asleep, self-hatred's going to creep in. And you can blame it on the devil, the one who's bed you sleep in.

People talk about my image like I come in two dimensions, like lipstick is a sign of my declining mind, like what I happen to be wearing the day that someone takes my picture is my new statement for all womankind.

I sing sometimes for the war that I fight, 'Cause every tool is a weapon if you hold it right.

I see a lot of young female performers who do not call themselves feminist, but would certainly believe in their own right to self-determination, and wouldn't want anybody to stop them from becoming themselves. They just refuse to recognize the relationship between their lives and those of other women, or feel any solidarity there.

I cannot name this, I cannot explain this, and I really don't want to so just call me shameless.

We barely have time to react in this world, let alone rehearse.

While out in TV Nation, under darkening skies, the resistance is just waiting to be organized.

Don't treat me like I am something that happened to you.

To split yourself in two is just the most radical thing you can do

I would like to perfect the art of being studiously aloof

I think when a society has such a profoundly dark and awful evil such as slavery in its history, then it leaves scars that are very, very deep. And unless we collectively address them and really put our effort to healing them, they'll perpetuate. The United States of America are still suffering from the echoes of slavery. I think we're still reeling from all the pain that is a result of it, and that's a reality.

How come I can pick my ears but not my nose?

Stepped out into the cold, collar high, under the slate gray sky. The air was smoking and the streets were dry, and I wasn't joking when I said goodbye.

My country tis of thee, to take swings at each other on talk show TV.

There's a certain window of time in the middle of the night out in Middle America where there's no bar open and nothing on TV. If you don't want to do too many drugs, you have to start bodily mutilation.

I don't like my language watered down, I don't like my edges rounded off.

Promiscuity does not scare me as long as she is savvy and self possessed when puberty comes to call. My aim is to simply raise my daughter to be secure in her self worth and capable of happiness all on her own.

All the decent people, male and female, are feminists. The only people who are not feminists are those who believe that women are inherently inferior or undeserving of the respect and opportunity afforded men. Either you are a feminist or you are a misogynist. There is no box marked "other."

we can't afford to do anyone harm because we owe them our lives each breath is recycled from someone else's lungs our enemies are the very air in disguise you can talk a great philosophy but if you can't be kind to people every day it doesn't mean that much to me it's the little things you do the little things you say it's the love you give along the way

If you’re not angry, then you’re just stupid, you don’t care. How else can you react when something’s so unfair?

People who are just starting out are always sort of coming to me for advice as the example of "independent girl," and lots of people ask, well, how did you get the booking agent or the national distribution or the tours? And I look at them like, "Good lord! Relax!" I mean, how I did it was to not care about it and to not even think about it for years and years. All I thought about was getting the next little gig in the little bar, and I get this sense that people want me to give them the secret formula or the magic trick to make it all happen.

We have to really be intentional right now about holding the media accountable, and taking back the discourse and terms of discussion. It's been hijacked.

Music has as many roles as people make it. I traveled to Burma once years ago to witness the people's struggle for democracy, meet some people and learn some stuff. And I had this incredible experience over and over again in the Burmese jungle or refugee camps or health clinics with very oppressed, very devastated people. I show up, and I'm white and I'm American and I'm privileged and I have an experience that these people can't fathom and vice versa. There was this huge chasm when I met people for all good reasons.

a lesson must be lived in order to be learned and the clarity to see and stop this now that is what i've earned

I've been waiting for sleep to offer up the day with both hands.

The old farm roads a four lane that leads to the mall, and our dreams are all guillotines waiting to fall.

There's a crowd of people harbored in each person There are so many roles that we play.

I am getting nowhere with you and I can't let you go and I cant get through.

Some people's minds we're not going to change. But if we can't, we need to bring more positive voices into the discussion.

I use my dress to wipe up my drink, I care less and less what people think.

I am a work in progress Dressed in the fabric of a world unfolding Offering me intricate patterns of questions Rhythms that never come clean And strengths that you still haven't seen

I was supposed to be cool about this, yeah, I remember - cool was the plan. Tried to keep it all under wraps, but the wraps kept going slack. I keep turning round, I keep coming back.

[The 'corporate takeover of people's lives'] also accounts for a lot of homogenization of culture. There are fast food restaurants everywhere. Every place tastes the same.

All the wrong people have the power of suggestion and the freedom of the press is meaningless if nobody asks a question.