Joanna Newsom Quotes

I definitely don't subscribe to the theory that more instruments, or more vocal tracks, harmony, or double tracking the voice, is a good thing. People do their early albums very stripped down, then each album becomes bloated.

It broke my heart when I learned the moon had been passing the sun’s light off as its own.

We deserve to know light. And grow evermore lighter and lighter.

What a woman does is open doors. And it is not a question of locking or unlocking.

Never get so attached to a poem that you forget truth that lacks lyricism.

I don't think I'm abnormal and I think that lets people down.

We are blessed and sustained by what is not said

I would happy for someone to download my music.

I wasn't interested in writing music that wasn't beautiful for me to listen to.

I am producing sounds that people are not used to hearing from the harp.

I have a voice that's obviously untrained - and I think untrainable - so I kind of secreted it away for a long time. Actually, I would write songs with lyrics when I was younger, but I would just sing in my head.

I wasn't born of a whistle or milked from a thistle at twilight No I was all horns and thorns sprung out fully formed, knock-kneed and upright.

I want to make music that somehow connects to the things that I love in America music.

I give away CDs at shows if someone wants a CD but doesn't have any money. I wouldn't want to do that forever.

If I ever met Dolly Parton for sure, I would just not be able to say anything. I love her.

I have a recording that I did of instrumental songs.

You should listen to a lot of different music.

And a thimble's worth of milky moon Can touch hearts larger than a thimble.

I never thought people would be mortally offended by the sounds I was making.

My voice in combination with the harp - which, by the way, I use because I've played it my entire life, not to make some statement about the harp - somehow has ... coloured people's interpretations of the music and projected an idea of childlike or fairytale quality or innocence. Which sometimes prevents people from listening to the songs the way I would like them to be listened to.

And all that we built, and all that we breathed And all that we spilled or pulled up like weeds Is piled up in back and it burns irrevocably And we spoke up in turns 'til the silence crept over me.

I'm not a wanderer, which is funny because I'm on tour half the time. I'm a home, hearth and family kind of person.

I didn't really know a lot of the history when I was younger. I didn't realize that the harp is coded in such a specific way in musical circles. It's kind of this society instrument because of its history as a young woman's parlor instrument.

People in San Francisco and the East Bay have shown interest, done interviews, and have come to shows. I guess that the news travels fast out of this island that we are on.

I can't play my songs on the smaller harp. I have a Celtic harp. I can't do the key changes.