Emily Haines Quotes

It bothers me that no one has the patience to deal with someone who is just sad.

It's a strange life... you really don't know how you will impact people or how things will play out.

I think if I were living in a utopian world, then it wouldn't be political commentary; it would be about daffodils.

Sometimes it's better to live through someone's work than the person themselves, and to realise that every human being is flawed, but through art they can be perfect.

Being alive and understanding that and making the decision to actually live take a lot of courage.

Certain audiences get the double meaning and some of the references and ironies, but there's definitely been shows where I feel like I'm not doing it well enough for it to come across as anything other than "oh, she's hot and she's dancing."

The writing process is very much like being in a dark tunnel, and you don't really know what you will end up with until you have created it.

Until the day we die, our lives are unwritten, which is sometimes a terrifying thought.

I mean that's really depressing man. Of course, the kids are freaking out. They watch cartoons and sit in front of the television and their parents are just probably yuppies who focus their entire lives around the child. The child has no sense of context, no sense of what world they are inhabiting-just like this Disnified bag of Cheerios reality. Don't give them a @#$%& pill! God! Take them out on a canoe already! You know what I mean?

I just write what comes to me. I didn't sit down and say ok, here is my statement. It's just a song that has a shout out.

That's the main work that I've done in my life - really wanting to get past that gender trap where there's a certain nudity in poetry. It's not about showing my soul, it's about observations.

You feel like you're trying to show off your cool by mentioning the five bands that you know are great and the five books that will reflect well on you. I can't do it. I should take the time to but I don't want to take the time to do that.

The nature of making music and making art, what motivates me is that it's interesting. It's interesting to listen, to really listen to other people's point-of-view. Take in their work. Listen to the way they sing. Listen to the way they write lyrics. What they are trying to express.

Believe in the power of songs.

The architecture of the song, if it's built properly, can withstand all kinds of things.

I have an identity crisis which is not resolved because I'm a dual citizen. My whole family is American, and I was born in India but I was raised in Canada. But all my extended family is American, I've held an American passport and I've spent my whole adult life in between New York and LA. So I feel like an American... and I also feel like a Canadian! I wish more people were dual citizens and then I wouldn't feel like such a freak.

The complete self-absorption, and childish indulgence and disregard, and having to feel as though everything you're doing is so people can live vicariously through you, so you have to pursue more and more unpleasant pastimes in order to satisfy the armchair people. That's a kind of scary existence.

You don't want to be conscious of everything.

This is the thing I've noticed is that the greater the distance between you and any ordinary task is the measurement of how much rockstar potential you have.

I like the idea that you would participate in mainstream culture, especially for young girls and young kids who are looking for an alternative. It's not that I'm superior, but I know that my heart is in it more than people who get into music for other reasons.

I think more like Charlie Chaplin than like Jennifer Anniston.

I think a sexual energy is a positive energy.

[When] you're a writer, you know that a lot of times you have to sneak up on yourself in order to achieve what you want to achieve, and sometimes you don't even know what it is until you've done it.

There are lots of people in the world whose existence doesn't revolve around American culture.

I try not to focus on the gender issue too much but I think you have to acknowledge it in order for it to go away.