Natalie Merchant Quotes

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

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

There is one tradition in America I am proud to inherit. It is our first freedom and the truest expression of our Americanism: the ability to dissent without fear. It is our right to utter the words, 'I disagree.' We must feel at liberty to speak those words to our neighbors, our clergy, our educators, our news media, our lawmakers and, above all, to the one among us we elect - President.

Life is sweet, life is also very short.

I’ve always considered it a great privilege to be a musician, I’ve never lost sight of that.

TV holds a close second to cars for destroying our society. It's a failed experiment.

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

I think the most enduring lesson I was taught through my experiences of being a Girl Scout was that I was a member of a larger community. I out-grew my uniforms and badges years ago, but the memories of visiting nursing homes or organizing Earth Day tree plantings or my summers camping with girls from all different backgrounds will stay with me always.

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.

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.

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

I've raised my daughter with no television.

Have I been wrong? Have I been wise to shut my eyes?

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

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've had a large gay following for many years and have been quite aware of that.

I feel we all have the obligation, myself. I want to live in a more humane, civilized society, and I feel like the only way we're going to achieve that is if we all take it upon ourselves. I just wish we could be a more caring society. I feel like we're social Darwinists who believe that everyone has to make it on their own. But the reality is that we all don't start out on the same footing.

Have I been blind, have I been lost, inside myself and my own mind?

Im going to be shaking my booty when Im 55.

I don't enjoy the work that I do. It's just that it's not self-sustaining anymore. The way that I like to make records - they're expensive records to make and just can't afford to do it anymore.

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

I would never do a printed memoir. I've been asked to publish a memoir from years by different publishers and literary agents. I think it wouldn't be great for me because all I'd really want to talk about it music and I'd rather just play it.

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!

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.

When I originally wrote "Jealousy," it was more like an exercise to try to write a girl-group kind of pop song. It was really contrary to most of the material I'd ever written. I didn't pay much attention to the song after I'd recorded it. I didn't really perform it at all the last 20 years. When it came time to make the new record, I decided to make peace with the song and have fun with it.